Miners missing out on Compensation

Hundreds of miners across North Wales could be missing out on money owed to them in compensation for chest diseases and Vibration White Finger, an investigation by North Wales Conservatives has revealed. Articles published in the Daily Post and Evening Leader have highlighted action by Antoinette in bringing this to the attention of local miners.

There were over 1600 claims upheld for these injuries across the Vale of Clwyd and Delyn constituencies and miners in total shared a payout of just over £3.5 million from the Coal Health Compensation Scheme.

However, it was revealed in 2005 that some lawyers, as well as charging a set fee that had been agreed with the government, wrongly took a cut of the compensation awarded to their clients. Few miners and their families realise that they are entitled to this money back.

Based on estimates from the small number of people who have come forward to reclaim this money from unscrupulous solicitors, as much as 20 per cent of the 750,000 people who were awarded money across the UK may be entitled to have the wrongly charged money repaid.

The average pay out to those miners or their families who did have some compensation for their injuries taken away in additional lawyers’ fees has been £908.

Based on this evidence figures for possible claimants given by the Government's own Department of Energy and Climate Change were broken down by constituency.

In Delyn, home to the former Point of Ayr mine, there were 686 claimants for chest diseases and 261 for VWF, 947 in total. However, only one person in Delyn has lodged a complaint about reduced compensation with the Legal Complaints Service, the body which deals with these repayments.

Antoinette Sandbach, the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Delyn said: “It is vital that the miners or families in Flintshire look at the claims for Vibration White Finger and chest diseases. Families who were mischarged are missing out on an average repayment of £908 and research indicates that in Delyn approximately 186 families may have lost out on money due to them.

“Because people are not complaining law firms escape making repayments and ex-miners miss out on the cash they are entitled to. Any Flintshire miners who think they might have a claim should seek urgent advice from their Union or an organization such as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.”

Miners who may have had money taken out of their compensation payments can claim this deduction back by putting in a complaint to the Legal Complaints Service or through a private settlement with their solicitors.

Over half of these complaints have been upheld and the LCS has made lawyers repay more than £1.56 million to injured miners. But the vast majority of these claims come from the Yorkshire and Durham areas and the concern is that Welsh miners may continue to lose out on money to recompense their suffering due to a lack of awareness of the scheme.