Coal health compensation schemes

Download or read book Coal health compensation schemes written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-18 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This NAO report examines the administration of two coal health compensation schemes. In January 1998, the then DTI took over responsibility for the accumulated personal injuries liabilities of the British Coal Corporation after the Corporation was itself found to be negligent in respect of lung disease caused by coal dust, known as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and hand injuries caused as a result of using vibrating equipment, known as Vibration White Finger (VWF). Two compensation schemes were therefore introduced, one for COPD, and one for VWF. Applications for such compensation were made through legal representation, with an independent medical assessment. Capita Insurance Services now administers the scheme, with the Department meeting the cost of successful claimants. The two schemes are under the jurisdiction of the High Court in England and Wales, and require regular updates on their progress. The NAO has set out a number of conclusions and recommendations, which include: that the number of claims greatly exceeded the Department's original forecasts, with 591,000 claims for COPD, and 169,000 for VWF; difficulties and complexities dealing with the number of claims led to long delays in paying compensation for some claimants; the Department might have been able to deliver the schemes more quickly and more cost effectively had it been better prepared at the time of the court rulings and in the period from the transition of responsibility from the British Coal Corporation to the Department; there was limited strategic oversight or forward planning in handling resulting liability and insufficient resource was allocated to the task; there was failure to recognise that liability would include claims on behalf of the estates of deceased miners, not just widows; an actuarial assessment at the time of the schemes were being developed would have identified uncertainties; that the Department did though in 2001 improve strategic oversight and programme management; that the Department's approach to negotiating the original fees tariffs with solicitors in 1999 was weak, and made no provision for the tariff to be reviewed. In total the Department expects to have paid out £4.1 billion in compensation, with £2.3 million spent on the administration of the schemes. By the time the final claims have been discharged, the Department will have settled more than three quarters of a million cases.