Schedule 6
Welfare Reform Bill
9:10 am
Jim Murphy (Minister of State (Work), Department for Work and Pensions; East Renfrewshire, Labour)
I beg to move amendment No. 110, in schedule 6, page 77, line 19, at end insert—
‘1A A person is not a relevant employer in relation to a person disabled by a disease to which this Act applies if the disabled person has had no period of employment with him which is a qualifying period of employment.’.
Again, we have come to this amendment a little earlier than I anticipated, but I and my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, East, are as one in our delight that we are making such good progress.
The Pneumonoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 provides for lump-sum payments to be made to people with certain dust-related diseased caused by their work. To qualify for a payment, a person must be unable to take civil action against their employer because that employer is no longer in business. In the Act, that is called the “relevant employer condition.” It became clear within months of the Act coming into force that applying the relevant employer condition meant that most claims would be rejected. The changes that we are making to the 1979 Act will incorporate in legislation a more practical version of the relevant employer condition than officials have been applying since 1980. There will be five circumstances in which an employer will not be regarded as a relevant employer, therefore enabling a person to bring a claim. Without the amendment, those relevant employer disregards that we wish to introduce will not apply in cases in which all periods of employment with the employer ended more than 20 years before the qualifying date.