Firms underestimate cost of absence

The protection industry has a crucial role to play in getting people back to work, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Speaking at the COVER Protection Forum, Professor Mansel Aylward, chief medical adviser and medical director at the DWP stressed the importance of early intervention to help control employee absenteeism and cut the growing cost of State disability benefits. "If you do not do something about people claiming benefits in the first year, you may as well forget about it," he said. Quoting current Government statistics, Aylward said that of the o...