Compensation Culture is a myth - UK survey
24/05/05
Fewer than one in 10 people made ill or injured by their work ever receive any compensation from the state or from their employers, reveals a new report. ?A little compensation?, which appears in the latest edition of the health and safety magazine Hazards, says that every year around 850,000 people suffer an accident or develop a disease as a result of their job, but no more than 80,000 receive any compensation either from their employer or from the state for their pain and suffering.
It adds that the cost of compensation for work-related disease and injury is dwarfed by the costs borne by workers and their families, which could be 10 times as high.
The report shows that even workers dying of deadly asbestos cancers more often than not receive nothing from the government compensation scheme.
Hazards editor Rory O'Neill said: 'A system that primarily compensates conditions found in mines, mills and manufacturing is no good in an economy built on services, shops and science? the chances of getting any compensation from any source for some of the top occupational diseases of the 21st century - strain injuries, stress and depression and heart disease - are worryingly small.'
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?A little compensation?, Hazards, number 90, 2005.
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