Move follows government's plan to drop the rule on 40-year records
The ABI has overhauled its code for tracing old employers’ liability policies, which has a success rate of just 40%, following the government’s decision to repeal the Employers Liability Compulsory Regulations Act, 1998.
The repeal of the act will scrap the requirement for employers to keep insurance policy records for 40 years and will come into effect next on 1st October.
There have been fears that the government’s plan to drop the rule on 40-year records will make it even more difficult for claimants to trace old policies.
An ABI said: “The protocol is even more relevant now, our concern has always been with the emergence of long tail diseases where it can take decades for the exposure to appear after the exposure to the risk.
“For some time we have been looking at ways we can strengthen the tracing code and in particular make it easier for intermediaries, who come to us with the majority of enquiries, to provide the information in a form that will maximise the chances of a match.”
The new ABI protocol is designed to ensure the accurate and relevant recording of Employers’ Liability insurance policy details by insurers, in a format that facilitates ready searches for an employee looking for their former employer’s insurance policy.
In order to facilitate ready searches, the relevant policyholder details need to be recorded by the insurer. Relevant policyholder details may include the nature of business, company numbers, addresses and dormant names of all insured operations that have employees in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
