Family of dead miner offered £7.13 as lawyers earn £41m

Thousands of miners with chronic chest disease have been paid less than £100 in compensation under a programme that earned their solicitors 20 times as much per case.

Newly released details of the £7.5 billion scheme, the largest in the world, expose the way in which public money has benefited law firms far more generously than pitmen and their families.

One family, whose father died after spending almost half a century underground, were offered only £7.13. Yet the law firm that handled their claim has earned £41 million.