A sad story in the Irish Times today, Conrad’s story: How in two years he went from full-time work to the streets, points out an often overlooked issue with injuries at work. “Conrad”, who was working a window fitter, injured his hand at work but did not report it. The story explains the problem in two lines:
He says the injury to his hand occurred while he was working but at the time he did not disclose it for fear he would be sacked.
This failure to disclose a workplace injury created major problems for him when he later went to claim social welfare.
So when Conrad eventually lost his job, he did had no documentation available to support his claim that he was injured at work, and therefore did not qualify for disability benefit or disability allowance.
The lesson is to report all workplace injuries and have them recorded in an Accident Report Boook, even when you have no intention of making a personal injury claim.