Personal Injury at Work
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has proposed that the government give tax breaks to companies that offer rehabilitation services to their workers. The new Compensation Bill has added fuel to the discussion on rehabilitation programmes.
The government would like to see far more rehabilitation in regards to personal injury compensation award packages. The new legislation wants people to see compensation after an injury as the means for the injured to get back to their pre-accident states as soon as possible.
Large lump sums of cash received after many years don't usually achieve that goal. Players throughout the industry are looking at new and innovative ways to encourage rehabilitation and ABI believes getting employers to take up responsibility for rehabilitation in regard to work related injuries is better accomplished with a carrot instead of a stick. A tax incentive such as the one that they are proposing may be just the step in the right direction.
Currently, only 12% of employers nationwide offer any form of rehabilitation to their injured workers. Justin Jacobs, ABI's head of liability and motor insurance, said in a press release from ABI, "Britain has one of the worst records on treating workplace ill health of all industrialised nations. The ill, injured, their families, and businesses all pay the price through financial strain and lost productivity. Insurers are doing much to develop rehabilitation products, but we need to encourage greater employer take up, and get the government to lead in promoting greater rehabilitation."
According to the statistics released by ABI, 28 million workdays were lost in 2005 because of work related injuries. These lost days cost businesses more than £13 billion every year. Injured workers made 2.7 million claims to the government's incapacity benefits scheme to a tune of £7 billion per year of taxpayers' money. More in house rehabilitation programmes means faster recovery, less lost workdays, and less claims for government benefits. Even with a tax break for employers, the government may very well come out in a better financial position once rehabilitation programmes become the norm in British work places.
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