Government acts with compassion on asbestos victims
Press Release
Responsesource.com
Asbestos sufferers and their lawyers have welcomed the Government's
announcement that it will not be reclaiming compensation from Turner
and Newell (T&N) claimants.
The decision will mean that victims of the UK arm of the insolvent US
manufacturing giant Federal Mogul, and its other associated UK
companies, will be able to keep all their compensation rather than
having to pay a portion of it to the Government's Compensation Recovery
Unit (CRU).
Thompsons Solicitors has campaigned with trade unions and victims'
groups to secure a fund to pay out the thousands of people who
developed or will develop asbestos-related diseases as a result of
being negligently exposed by T&N.
But with payouts from the fund set to be dramatically lower than
claimants would have received if T&N had not been in
administration, victims would have lost still more of their
compensation had the usual CRU rules applied.
The law allows the government to reclaim the first five years of any
state benefit that has been claimed, once the innocent victim of injury
or disease receives compensation.
But the Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that T&N claimants should keep their compensation in full.
Ian McFall, head of asbestos litigation at Thompsons Solicitors, said:
"This is a swift and compassionate move by the government which will
make a real difference to thousands of asbestos sufferers and their
families. These claimants have had an agonising wait for their
compensation, since T&N went into administration, and even though
the settlement fund has now been established, they are only likely to
receive about 20p in the £1 – signficantly lower than the real worth of
their claims.
"To have to lose still more of their damages by paying back benefits to
the government would have been a very difficult thing for claimants to
understand. We welcome this move, which will help hundreds of people
immediately and many more who may claim in the future.
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