Industrial disease victims 'uncompensated'

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By Bob Walker BBC Radio 5 live's Gabby Logan show Ronald Tetlow was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a fatal lung cancer, two years ago

Hundreds of people are being left to die from industrial diseases without receiving the compensation to which they are entitled.

Critics blame the failure of a scheme that was established to find which insurance company covered their employer.

A recent government review showed that it failed in more than half of cases, leaving indivuals not knowing which company to apply to.

One of those waiting for the money due to them is Ronald Tetlow.

In a cramped back bedroom in a house in Bolton, he lies dying.

He is surrounded by oxygen bottles that help him breathe and a few photographs that remind him of happier times.

They include a framed picture of his beloved dog. He had to give him away because Ronald rarely walks anywhere now.

Ronald, who is now 80 years old, was never out of work. Now he pulls back the bedclothes to show me his pitifully thin legs.

Cancer

He used to work for a packing company back in the 1950s, a job he describes without irony as the best job he'd ever had because he was his own boss.

But those seemingly happy days have left a terrible legacy. He was diagnosed just two years ago with mesothelioma, a fatal lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

His daughter Christine Sydall is now his full-time carer. A woman with a cheery smile trying to "make the best of it", Christine has her own life on hold.

Her 28-year-son has to sleep on the downstairs couch because Ronald needs the bed.

Ronald Tetlow shortly before he was diagnosed with mesothelioma

If anyone was guaranteed to develop a fatal disease from the use of asbestos, it was almost certainly Ronald.

"How dad explained it to me was that they had trays full of what looked like popcorn but was really asbestos", Christine says.

"They used to put their hands in it and fluff it up.

"If the sunlight was shining through the windows you could see the asbestos floating through the air. And people used to walk through that place all the time."

It sounds like a straightforward case and one which should guarantee Ronald and his daughter some compensation to ease the short time left to him.

Indeed, he was granted £100,000 compensation in court, but the insurers denied they were the company responsible for cover during the period he was there.

"Unfair"

The actual insurance company can no longer be identified, and the packing company for which Ronald worked no longer exists.

"That money would make a huge difference to us," says Christine, although their needs sound very simple.

"I could perhaps take him for day trips or something, maybe buy a better bed.

"He's my dad and I just want him to have something that he's never had. If I could get him away on a holiday for a week or two that would be just great."

The insurance industry runs a voluntary tracing code designed to help people identify companies that may have covered their employers - an employer that may long have gone out of business.

But critics say it's failing.

Inquiries

The latest review by the Department for Work and Pensions showed that in 2008 the success rate of the online tracing system was just 45%.

Of particular concern was the number of inquiries made relating to claims made since 1999 - the year that the tracing system was introduced.

Only half of these more-recent inquiries were successful.

The industry counters that by saying 98% of claims are settled without referral to the tracing scheme - although that figure includes claims for industrial accidents as well as diseases.

In his foreword to the report on the latest review, Lord McKenzie, a minister in the Department of Work and Pensions, welcomed an increase in the number of people making successful inquiries through the tracing scheme and praised the Association of British Insurers (ABI) for trying to improve the system.

A spokesman for the ABI itself said: "The ABI's Employer's Liability Tracing Service is helping to find an increasing numbers of cases, 59% last year, compared to 45% the year before.

"Ninetyeight per cent of people looking to make a claim can trace an employer or insurer without any problems. The ABI stands willing to talk to government, and other stakeholders, on any ways to further improve the tracing process."

Lord McKenzie has also warned that more must be done to help victims.

He is considering a request from campaigners and MPs to force the industry to introduce a Fund of Last Resort - where companies pay into a pool to help those who can't trace their insurers.

For victims like Ronald Tetlow, that may come too late.