Increase in payments available under the Pneumoconiosis Scheme
The Department for Employment and Learning today announced an increase of 2.7% in payments made under the Pneumoconiosis Scheme.
The Scheme provides compensation to sufferers (or their dependants) of certain dust-related diseases, who are unable to claim damages from the owners of businesses where the dust exposure occurred, either because the employers have ceased trading, or there is no realistic prospect of obtaining damages from them. The Scheme pays a one-off lump sum, dependent on degree of disability and age. The increase will come into effect from 16 April 2006.
A spokesperson for the Department said: “The increase in the rates will ensure that compensation payments continue to keep pace with inflation. A one-off lump sum payment ranging from £2,309 up to a maximum of £65,531 is now payable, depending on the circumstances, to sufferers of certain respiratory industrial diseases caused by dust, or if the sufferer has died, their dependants.”
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. The Pneumoconiosis (Workers’ Compensation) Scheme was set up in Northern Ireland under the Pneumoconiosis, etc., (Workers’ Compensation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1979. Payments under the Scheme are administered by the Department for Employment and Learning.
2. The diseases to which the Scheme apply are pneumoconiosis, byssinosis, diffuse mesothelioma, primary carcinoma of the lung (where accompanied by asbestosis or diffuse pleural thickening) and diffuse pleural thickening.
3. The rates of payment are reviewed regularly in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI), and uprated under the Pneumoconiosis, etc., (Workers’ Compensation) (Payment of Claims (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006. The increase in the levels of compensation under the new Regulations is 2.7%, which reflects the increase in RPI from October 2004 to September 2005.
4 Printed copies of the Regulations are available from the Stationery Office, 16 Arthur Street, Belfast, quoting ISBN 0-337-96391-6, priced £3.00.
5. Media enquiries to the Department for Employment and Learning Press Office on 028 90257872.