Protest at 2,000 miners who died awaiting payouts

THE treatment of former coal miners has been attacked after it emerged almost 2,000 in Scotland died of chest disease awaiting compensation.

Department of Energy and Climate Change figures, revealed in answer to an SNP question at Westminster, show that 1,855 former miners in Scotland did not live to receive their compensation from the UK government under the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) scheme.

Across the UK, a total of 17,895 former miners died before their claims were paid. In the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, 179 former miners died before claims were settled - the highest anywhere in Scotland.

Compensation payments were delayed by legal wrangles when the last Labour UK government opposed the bid for compensation by the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers (Nacods) union.

SNP Central Fife MSP Tricia Marwick said: "Thousands of miners died before they saw a penny from the compensation that was rightfully theirs.

"They were awarded the money, despite Labour's attempts to stop it, because they contracted this terrible killer-disease, often after spending their working lives underground in unimaginable conditions."