What is Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit?
IIDB is a no fault scheme paid by Department for Work and Pensions.
IIDB is available to support people who are ill or disabled from an accident or disease caused by work or while they were on an approved employment training scheme or course.
You do not have to have paid national insurance contributions to get IIDB. You can get it even if you carry on working or go back to work. It does not matter how much savings, capital or other income you have.
You cannot get IIDB if you were self-employed.
How much could I get?
A doctor will assess how your disability affects you. The extent of your disablement will be stated as a percentage. Only the level of disability directly attributable to the accident or disease is taken into account. If you have an unrelated or pre-existing condition, the doctor will not include the effects of that in your percentage disablement on a scale of 1 to 100%.
Normally you must be assessed as 14% disabled or more to get the benefit. All amounts are a guide only.
| Assessed level of disablement | Weekly amount |
|---|---|
| 100% | £174.80 |
| 90% | £157.32 |
| 80% | £139.84 |
| 70% | £122.36 |
| 60% | £104.88 |
| 50% | £87.40 |
| 40% | £69.92 |
| 30% | £52.44 |
| 20% | £34.96 |
Disablement of 14-19% is rounded up to 20% for payment purposes.
IIDB is not means tested but does count as income for other means tested benefits.
Accidents
You may be able to claim Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) if:
- you were employed when the accident or event happened
- you were on an approved employment training scheme or course when the accident or event happened
- the work accident or event that caused your illness or disability happened in England, Scotland or Wales
Diseases
You can claim IIDB if you were employed in a job or were on an approved employment training scheme or course that caused your disease. The scheme covers more than 70 diseases, including:
- Asthma
- Chronic Bronchitis or Emphysema - also known as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
- Deafness
- Pneumoconiosis (including Silicosis and Asbestosis)
- Osteoarthritis of the knee in coal miners
- Prescribed disease A11 (previously known as vibration white finger)
- Cataracts
- Anthrax
- Dermatitis
- Leukaemia
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Diffuse Mesothelioma and a number of other asbestos-related diseases such as primary carcinoma of the lung
This is not the complete list, if you feel you have a disease which is in someway related to your work, contact us for a FREE ASSESSMENT.
There is also generally no time limit for claiming IIDB. You can still claim if your accident happened or disease started some years ago.
There are however some exceptions to the general rule that there is no length of time that must have been worked in an occupation in order to claim IIBD for a few specific industrial diseases.
If you have occupational deafness you must have worked in a prescribed occupation for 10 years and claim within five years of having done so.
If you have occupational asthma you must claim within 10 years of working in a prescribed occupation.
If you have cataracts you must have worked in a prescribed occupation for five years or more.
A claim can be backdated for up to three months if you would have been entitled to it earlier. It does not matter why your claim is late. But you cannot ask for Disablement Benefit to be backdated if you are claiming for loss of hearing.
What other benefits may be received due to industrial accidents or diseases?
You may be entitled to one or more of the following benefits:
Constant Attendance Allowance (CAA) – can be claimed for diseases which resulted in a 100% disability rating which necessitates constant attention and care every day.
Exceptionally Severe Disablement Allowance – (currently £67.90) can be claimed (in addition to CAA) if your disability is of such severity that you are in need of intermediate or exceptional constant care which necessitates a permanent care giving arrangement.
Reduced Earnings Allowance is a benefit that you can get if your earnings are reduced because of your accident or disease, or if you can't work at all. However, you can only get Reduced Earnings Allowance for accidents that happened, or diseases that started, before 1 October 1990. You may be entitled to Reduced Earnings Allowance but not Disablement Benefit, or you may be entitled to get them both together. The amount depends on how much your earnings have been reduced, but there is a maximum amount that can be paid each week.
You do not have to have paid national insurance contributions to get Reduced Earnings Allowance.
Retirement Allowance is for people who have been getting Reduced Earnings Allowance and who stop working after they reach state pension age. You get Retirement Allowance at 25% of the rate of your reduced earnings allowance when you stopped work. There is a maximum amount that can be paid each week. Retirement Allowance is not affected if you go into hospital. You do not make a claim for Retirement Allowance because you only get it if you've been getting Reduced Earnings Allowance.