Cancer diagnosis and Insurance / Jonnie Irwin

[themessygarden]

Jonnie Irwin has said his employer paid him off and basically fired him when he told them about his cancer diagnosis. The company claim they couldn't get insurance for him which is why they had to terminate his contract.

As an employee of 18 years, wouldn't the company already have insurance cover for him. That is what insurance is for, its there for when you get ill.

I had insurance through work when I was diagnosed with cancer, the insurance kicked in and all my costs were covered. Even recently our insurance company changed and they accepted all pre existing conditions.

Wonder if he was employed on a freelance basis and they only insured him per episode or per series.

It is quite worrying, and it really bothers me, that an insurance company can actually cancel your insurance because of a terminal illness diagnosis.

Most people in TV/Film production are freelancers/self employed.

Sadly, things like this are the reality of self employment, i.e. little or not "employment" rights nor protection, and that's part of why the rates are usually a lot higher than for workers "on the books".

Self employed people have to make their own arrangements out of the higher "pay" they receive. I think Jonnie was merely emphasising this for the benefit of other self employed/freelancers to encourage them to provide for themselves.

We saw the same with the covid lockdowns, where over 3 millions workers (10% of the workforce) found themselves excluded from the various covid support schemes.

I don’t think it’s necessarily the SSP. The point is, most people with cancer will have had weeks off work undergoing treatment, and then the cancer comes back, and the process starts again- so they will have exhausted the sick leave policy. I work for a global company and people are frequently let go for too much absence from work. If there’s a death in service benefit, companies, and no doubt the public sector too, will try to get rid of you long before they have to pay that. I know lots of people with cancer, and very many indeed lose their jobs, have to give them up, or are forced out.

I’ve had numerous colleagues who were paid off by the nhs after getting cancer. In each case it was terminal. I don’t know what the ins and outs of the pay off were, though I do know one who was allowed her pension very early before pensionable age, the manager said she hadn’t known it before but the poor woman had less than a year to live. They do tend to do the six months full pay, six months half pay but after that if they can’t come back then they are let go.

i do feel very sorry for Johnnie but agree it will be a combination of being free lance and working abroad. Hopefully they gave him a good pay off.

Yes, my understanding is that the NHS is pretty ruthless at getting rid of staff.

But he's not an employee. He's a freelancer who had a contract to deliver programmes.