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 Home Campaigns Freedom From Fear Resources
Campaign pressures government to improve criminal injuries compensation scheme
04 June 2003
Retail workers who have been the victims of violence should make a claim for compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) scheme, run by the State.
The Usdaw Legal Plus scheme helps members make a claim. In the last five years the union has recovered more than £900,000 for its members, under the scheme which was established in 1964 to provide a method of compensation for innocent victims of violence.
The CICA scheme is, in many cases, the only source of compensation available to innocent victims who are physically or mentally injured inside or outside of work. However, the scheme has serious flaws and often compensation paid to victims does not reflect the physical and mental trauma, and the loss of earnings, endured by the victims.
In the Freedom From Fear campaign, we are asking the Government to:
- Compensate victims for wage loss from day one. The scheme does not pay for wage loss during the first 28 weeks - this hits hardest low paid and part-time workers who do not qualify for Statutory Sick Pay and whose company sick pay runs for less than 28 weeks.
- Improve the compensation tables. The rates under the CICA tariff are lower than the Court's award in accident cases.
- Compensate each injury at 100%. Where people have multiple injuries, their compensation is cut for the second and subsequent injuries. This penalises the most badly injured.
- Relax the police reporting rules. These have been applied very heavy handedly, such that innocent victims have lost out.
- Speed up the administration.
The procedure is slow, time consuming and inflexible. Victims of violence have been through a very traumatic experience, and having to deal with a bureaucratic application system may put people off applying, or deter them from seeing their claim through to the end.
If you have been a victim of violent crime, ring Usdaw's Legal Department on 0161-224 2804.
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