Work Related Hearing Loss – Figures That Don’t Add Up!
Recent statistics for noise induced hearing loss in the workplace show a hidden undertow of work inflicted hearing damage, that all too often is overlooked, officially discounted or disregarded when making a claim for disability or compensation.
According to the Health & Safety Executive, a Medical Research Council (MRC) survey conducted in 1997- 98 shows that the number of people in the UK suffering from hearing difficulties as a result of exposure to noise at work was estimated at 509, 000.
However, when a Labour Force Survey, which restricted the estimate for self-reported hearing loss to those who worked in one year, 2008/09, the figure was 17, 000. Yet the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), estimating from a 10% sample of their records, only a total of 14, 000 people were receiving disablement benefit for occupational deafness in March 2001.
The discrepancy in figures are because both the MRC and the Self-reported Work-related Illness (SWI) surveys will have included many sufferers who would not meet the DWP criteria for benefit.
To qualify for benefit under the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit scheme (IIDB), at least 50 decibels – a substantial impairment of hearing loss – must be apparent in both ears, equating to 20% disability. Also under current rules, a worker must have been employed for a minimum of ten years in specified noisy occupations.
Disturbingly, estimates based on DWP audiological examinations in 1998 show that of almost 2, 000 claims disallowed because the claimants had less than 50 decibels hearing loss, over 800 had between 35 and 49 decibels of hearing loss.
Under these rulings, the figures produced for 2007/08, officially show only 215 individuals (all males) who qualified as new cases of noise-induced deafness under the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit scheme, an increase on the 175 in 2006/07, the first year-on-year increase since 2002/03.
Yet, in 2008/09 an estimated 17, 000 individuals claimed they suffering hearing problems which they believed to be work-related and a figure still far less than the 509,000 reported ten years earlier by the MRC survey!
Facts and figures do not necessarily appear to support each other! Anyone who suspects they may have a hearing problem brought on by work related factors will need to seek definitive hearing loss advice before deciding to make a claim for compensation.