FEEDING THE FAT CATS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2017 :: RMTnews 25 LEGAL Injuries and accidents at work remain a significant concern for RMT and its members. Fresh from slashing funding for the Health and Safety Executive, the government is now lining up to push through proposals which would stop thousands of workers who are injured at work from being able to access free or affordable justice for their injuries. Currently, injured people can claim back the cost of getting legal advice if the damages they get for pain and suffering are above £1,000. Below £1,000 and the claim falls into the ‘small claims limit’ where Injured people either have to fight their case on their own in their own time against well-funded insurers or pay for a lawyer out of money meant to be for their injuries and losses. If the government gets its way, the limit would increase 500 per cent to £5,000, leaving 95 per cent of those who actually caused the injury paying nothing towards the injured getting independent legal advice. That's over a million people every year on their own and the insurers laughing all the way to the bank. As we saw with the entirely unjust introduction of Employment Tribunal fees in 2013 lots of people will be put off from bringing a claim in the first place, even though they have been injured through no fault of their own and are fully entitled to compensation. While the government says its proposals are designed to tackle a problem with so-called “fraud” in ‘whiplash’ claims, this is a fig leaf aimed at distracting people from the government’s true intentions. The consultation document – which the government gave interested parties very little time to respond to over Christmas – shows that they actually want to impose the small claims limit increase in all personal injury claims, whether they occur in the workplace, on the road or anywhere else. This despite the fact that their own statistics show that the number of work injury cases has dropped 12 per cent over the last ten years, and they admit there is no suggestion of fraud by injured workers. The changes in effect mean a huge cheque being paid from your taxes to insurers, their multi-millionaires bosses and their shareholders. Using the government’s own figures (which are a gross underestimate) these proposals would see our already squeezed NHS lose at least £9 million per year, and the Treasury lose (and, therefore, public services including schools and the NHS) at least £135 million per year. Meanwhile, the government admit that the insurers will benefit to the tune of £200 million per year. The government has joined insurers in been talking up scare stories of a “compensation culture” and “whiplash fraud”, and they have skated over the fact that even the insurance industry’s own figures show they have already saved a staggering £8.7 billion in claims costs for motor insurance claims in the last five years thanks to previous government changes. And yet premiums are higher now than they were in 2010 and increased by 17 per cent in the last year alone. On her first day as prime minister, Theresa May said that her government would not work for the “privileged few” but instead for those who are “just about managing”. But in advancing these callous and cynical plans she would only further enrich insurers and their sickeningly well-paid chief executives - the very epitome of the privileged few. If May were really bothered about standing up for working people, she would not be recommending plans which would see serious injuries, resulting in physical and mental ill-health, downgraded to mere ‘minor’ injuries in the eyes of the law. And to suggest that the chance of a working person securing £5,000 in damages for their injury is not a significant enough sum to justify expert legal support is simply insulting. Let May or justice secretary Liz Truss tell a train guard or station cleaner working long hours every week that £5,000 is insignificant and see how they react. Help us defeat these unfair and vindictive proposals. Put pressure on the government to think again by writing to your MP (there is a pre drafted letter at http://www.feedingfatcats.co.uk). Follow @FeedingFatCats on Twitter and sign the online petition at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/173099. FEEDING FAT CATS Gerrard Stilliard, head of personal injury strategy, Thompsons Solicitors warns Tories are seeking to benefit the ‘privileged few’ yet again