ACCORDING to Paul Brennan of St Helens Disability Network, thousands of workers and unemployed people are rushing to beat a March 31 deadline set by the Government for claiming disablement benefits.

The new regulations, which come into force on April 1, are designed to cut costs by reducing 'back claims' to three months. Said Paul: "Under current rules, individuals could make late claims for benefits. These could then be awarded from the first date of their claim. As a result some people would get a lump sum covering anywhere from a few months to several years worth of benefits."

Sue Higgins, marketing manager of Industrial Diseases Compensation Limited, said: "Many people do not realise that their symptoms are caused by their jobs, so previously when making a back-dated claim if they could show good cause as to why they had not claimed before they would be successful. Now, with the new system, rather than being treated as individual cases, people are being pigeon-holed into set circumstances. If they meet these, they will get three months limited back-dating, if not, nothing."

She added: "It is particularly worrying to find that in respect of industrial injuries benefit, the Government stands to make a saving of between £4 and £4.4 million as a result of these changes.

"The department's own figures say that between 400,000 and 450,000 people will lose out when the new regulations come into force, an estimated loss of £290 per person. But we are of the opinion that this estimate is incorrect. Under the present system, we have made claims for people who have been entitled to benefits back-dated as far back as 10 years or more resulting in payments of between £16,000 and £19,500 per person."

And Paul Brennan commented: "Previous claims for these benefits have come from workers in many industries such as steel, mining and chemicals. In this area hundreds of workers received thousands of pounds for industrial injuries and related benefits."

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