Thousands of former miners and their families in Shropshire have received £8 million from the Government’s compensation scheme for ex-coalworkers suffering from poor health.Latest figures show that 2,235 claimants have received damages after suffering lung disease following years spent working down the mines - with 207 successful claims also made for physical injuries.
The area with the largest number of claimants in the county is Telford where 828 claims have been lodged with damages totalling £2.6m.
Some 512 claims have been received from former miners and their families in Ludlow and about £1m paid out; 492 claims made from those in north Shropshire, amounting to £2.2m; 543 claims in The Wrekin with nearly £2m paid; and 67 claims in Shrewsbury and Atcham totalling £236,276 in compensation.
In England and Wales, 762,000 claims have been made since the launch of the Coal Health compensation scheme in 1998. A total of 706,000 have been settled with £3.8 billion paid out.
The total cost is expected to rise to £7 billion when the process is complete by summer 2009 - with £2.3 billion spent on administration, including £1.3 billion to solicitors to process claims.
Many former miners have died waiting for their claims to be processed. Others have not received any money, a decade after claiming.
The Government has come under fire for its handling of the scheme. A report in March by the Public Accounts Committee said it was “seriously mismanaged” and found two-thirds of claims cost more to administer than the cash paid out.
Ludlow MP Philip Dunne, who sits on the cross-party panel, said: “When the PAC investigated this payment scheme we were very critical of the bureaucratic process and long delay between claims being made and being paid out.
“There have been some very sad stories of claimants dying before, or shortly after receiving their payments.”
The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said improvements had been made including a fast-track system to ensure ex-miners and their families receive their compensation quicker.
“We have continually sou- ght further improvements,” a spokeswoman said.
By Sunita Patel
One Comment
So the average payout for a life threatening and health damaging illness caused by neglectful health and safety is 8 million divided by 2235 people. That comes to less than 4000 pounds per person. MMMMM perhaps celebrations and triumph are not really the mode in which this story should be reported. It is a disgrace that the level of compensation is abysmal and a further insult that it has taken this long to pay out.