Following our previous article on Mesothelioma schemes in which we outlined the possibility of claiming under two different payment schemes for suffers of an Asbestos-Related Illness we now endeavour to look at one of those schemes in more depth.
The DMPS is only open to applicants who have been exposed to Asbestos during the course of employment but have exhausted all other avenues of pursuing a previous employer or their insurer before being able to apply under this scheme.
It is therefore important that before applying under this scheme you instruct a Solicitor to act on your behalf. The Solicitor will then write to any previous employers that may still be active and will also write to the insurers of those that are not.
It is vital that you provide your Solicitor with as much employment background information as possible to ensure that when the assessors under the DMPS look into your application it is clear to them that there was no possibility you could have recovered from a an employer or insurer.
If Solicitor is able to find an active employer or insurer they will need to be sure that they have adequate evidence such as detailed witness statements to support their claim to stand any chance of success. Without supporting evidence it is likely that a claim against an employer or insurer will fail at the first hurdle and it may then be the case that you are rejected under the DMPS as you could potentially have claimed from an employer or insurer but failed to do so due to lack of quality evidence.
Once the Solicitor is sure that they cannot successfully pursue an employer or insurer they will be able to look into applying for the DMPS.
DMPS provides an applicant with much higher payments than the 2008 scheme. This is because it requires a lot more to demonstrate that there was no chance of pursuing an employer or insurer than it does to demonstrate that you were exposed to Asbestos but you don’t believe it was because of employment or training as under the 2008 scheme.
Payments under the DMPS also include a £7,000 contribution to legal fees i.e. to cover the costs that will have been incurred to demonstrate that the applicant was not able to recover from an employer or insurer.
The amount that will be paid to an applicant will depend on their age when they were diagnosed. The younger the applicant the more they can be awarded. The lowest amount that can be claimed under this scheme is £87,061.00 and the highest being £271,120.00.
Any applicant under this scheme must be aware that they will only have three years from the date of being diagnosed to apply.
For more information on either the 2008 payment scheme or the DMPS please contact Ryan Games on 0116 255 1811 or email at RGames@josiahhincks.co.uk