MPs are calling on HMRC to make more effort to reduce delays in supplying work history records to workers seeking compensation from historic employers over claims relating to occupational diseases particularly from asbestos related illnesses
The Treasury select committee was told technical problems mean the average wait is now around 14 months.
The topic was raised during the committee’s June session with HMRC’s newly appointed chief executive, Jon Thompson. MPs said there was a ‘significant problem’ in supplying the records, with the current 383-day delay longer than before. Employment records are required for claims for industrial illness such as asbestos-related disease among construction workers who may have had multiple employers.
At the time, Thompson told MPs: ‘The essential challenge we have here is these records go back several decades—well back—when records were kept in a particular way. In fact, the majority of these records before the mid-1970s are on microfiche.
‘The challenge here is microfiche records from the 1940s and 1950s are difficult to access, but we do need to think about what we can do. The machines necessary to identify the information are not made anymore, for example. We are having to scour various parts of the internet to repair the machines in order to provide the service people are asking for.’
Now Andrew Tyrie, the Treasury select committee chair, has written to Thompson on the topic, after receiving copies of correspondence between law firm Irwin Mitchell, representing claimants, and HMRC. In a letter to the solicitors, HMRC states that all work histories were recorded on microfiche up to 1997, and that employment histories usually only go back to 1960-61.
In the light of this, Tyrie is asking for clarification of the extent of the problem, together with more details of the nature of the technical problems and what HMRC is doing to overcome these.
The letter asks HMRC to outline its overall strategy and timetable for reducing the delay in the production of work histories to a level substantially less than the current one, plus a complete list of categories of applications for work histories that will be fast-tracked, and criteria behind it.
Tyrie also asks for details of the specifications of the microfiche readers used by HMRC, and any information about whether the department has tried machines, or replacement components from abroad.
He said: ‘HMRC need to reduce these delays. Those who suffer from life-threatening diseases, such as asbestosis, deserve at least that.’
Tyrie’s letter to Jon Thompson is here.
