Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) is available to any "employed earner" who has become disabled because of an accident or process at work. "Employed earner" means anyone who is gainfully employed in Great Britain and is liable to pay income tax under Schedule E on their wages, salaries or fees. Some people who are not employed earners are also eligible; special constables and agency workers who are liable to pay Class 1 National Insurance Contributions. Members of the Armed Forces and prisoners who are working during periods of legal custody are not able to claim.
The legislation states that "benefit shall be payable where an employed earner suffers personal injury after July 4th 1948 by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment". (Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 section 94 (1)). The Department of Work and Pensions defines an accident as "any unintended happening or incident at work" and "a mishap or untoward event which is not planned or wished by the employed earner and happens by chance."
Claimants cannot be regarded as being at work if they are on their way to or from work unless they are being transported by their employer. Claimants may qualify if they are travelling to or from an irregular place of work. Home helps are covered when travelling from one client to another but not for the first and last journey of each day.
The rates of pay for IIDB depends on the extent and severity of the disability. Regulations set out a number of injuries together with the prescribed degrees of disablement.
There is also a schedule of prescribed diseases which are linked to particular occupations- IIDB is also payable to those who can show that they have suffered disablement as a result of a prescribed disease which was contracted whilst working in a listed occupation.
The accident must be reported to the claimant's employer or supervisor or to a person authorised to accept such a report.
Employers who employ more than ten people are required to record-
When an accident has been reported employers are legally bound to investigate the accident, record any discrepancies between the notice given and the results of the investigation. If ten or more people are employed then the employer must keep a record of each accident for at least three years. All employers ar required to give an officer of the DWP any information about an alleged incident which may be required to decide a caliam for benefit.
Unreported or unwitnessed accidents.
The DWP Decision Makers' Guide indicates that unreported and unwitnessed accidents may be accepted for benefit if it can be shown that the claimant was working alone at the time of the accident and initially thought that the injury was trivial. The veracity of the claim will be called into question if it cannot be shown that the claimant was actually working alone or if it cannot be shown that the claimant was actually working at the relevant time.
Claims made long after the date of the incident.
Claims can be made a long time after the accident although Decision Makers are advised to consider such claims very carefully. The Guidance makes the point that some claimants may have just looked for some event to blame as the cause of their condition,
It is up to the claimant to prove on the balance of probabilities that an incident occurred. Decision Makers are advised to give a favourable accident decision if-
People are not able to claim if the accident occurred outside Great Britain although there are some significant exemptions to this rule.
Stress related incidents
Decision Makers are instructed to give careful consideration to claims from people who allege that they have experienced an industrial accident as the result of stress. In Chief Adjudication Officer v Faulds 2000 Lord Hope gave the following guidance-
"...for a condition such a post traumatic stress disorder to qualify under section 94(1) as personal injury by accident, the claimant must show the following:
The Decision Makers' Guide makes the point that claimants who allege that they have suffered an industrial accident as a result of a conversation will need to be considered carefully and the above facts will need to be established.
