Protection industry key to welfare reform success - Grid

Government and the protection industry must seize this window of opportunity if the welfare reform agenda is to succeed, a Group Risk Development (Grid) roundtable has concluded.

The sector could play a pivotal part in supporting the current welfare reform changes being implemented and the trade body issued a rallying cry urging the market to grasp the opportunity, it added.

It comes hot on the heels of Richard Verdin's personal plea to the Actuarial Profession's Health and Care conference to support the promotion of the industry to government and the public.

Grid said the roundtable's executive summary revealed the complexity of what the government was trying to do.

"The stakes of welfare reform are high, and the window of opportunity is short," it said.

"The programme of welfare reform currently underway in the UK has been likened to the reforms of post-war Britain following the Beveridge Report, in terms of its significance as a social milestone.

"Participants concluded that achieving the objectives will require collaboration between government, employers and the protection industry," it added.

In highlighting group income protection's (GIP) emphasis on prevention of absence and rehabilitation as pivotal to true welfare reform, the body argued employers could need to be incentivised by government to introduce it welfare reform and the protection issue are to be addressed nationally.

Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for Grid and who chaired the roundtable, identified the necessity for a joined up solution between individuals, employers and the state.

She explained the recent Department of Health ‘Healthy Lives, Healthy People' paper, and ongoing sickness absences review emphasised the need for this.

"There is clearly a call to action for business in the midst of the current welfare reform and health agendas," she said.

"We are facing a new system of welfare support, which aims to encourage more positive behaviours and which will pave the way for a major influx of workers back into the jobs market.

"The implications of this are twofold. Firstly, businesses need to ensure they are prepared for the changes as increased expectations for managing absence and rehabilitation back into the workplace are realised.

"Secondly, at a policy level, the protection industry needs to grasp the opportunity to work with government to make their vision of welfare reform a reality and fill the ever-growing protection gap," she added.