It’s the pits for Government as miners’ compensation soars

The
Treasury says it will have to find another £4bn to compensate sick ex-miners
and their families.

After
the miners’ compensation verdicts in 1998, the Government predicted it would
have to pay out £2bn, the largest industrial damages award in British history.
Since then the amount claimed has risen to more than £6bn.

Of
the total claims of 307,759, only 52,213 have received a full and final
settlement, claims the Financial Times.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Email

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

So
far 173,824 former miners have claimed compensation for respiratory diseases
including emphysema, bronchitis and vibration white finger. Thousands of fresh
claims are made every month.

The
government £6.2bn estimate covers up to 2006.