The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has taken up to 10% of the payouts to miners under the £8 billion compensation scheme funded by the taxpayer.

Other miners who have used independent, non-union legal firms to claim their compensation have, by comparison, kept all their payout money, which can total more than £8,000 apiece.

MPs representing former and existing mining constituencies this weekend called for an inquiry by the National Audit Office and for the money to be paid back to the miners whom they claim have been ripped off by the NUM.

Kevin Barron, MP for Rother Valley, raised the matter in parliament and told MPs: “It is clear the union has been taking millions of pounds for doing very little.

“About 40% of the claims are settled posthumously, so they are taking dead men’s money.”

John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, who has been campaigning against unfair charges imposed on sick former miners and their relatives, said: “The NUM didn’t do anything to earn these fees. The practice is outrageous. I am concerned for the miners and widows of miners who have been ripped off.”

The controversy has its origins in a judgment in the late 1990s that British Coal had been negligent in cases where miners had contracted vibration white finger, which is caused by using drills and vibrating tools, and respiratory diseases.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) subsequently agreed not only to pay the legal fees of miners seeking compensation but also to fund the payouts awarded.

In what is the biggest compensation scheme ever introduced by a government in Britain, an £8 billion fund to compensate more than 700,000 miners is being administered by the DTI. Lawyers have already been paid more than £400m in fees.

The NUM, of which Scargill is honorary president, linked up with Raleys, the union’s lawyers in its home base of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to help victims. The scheme has provided the union with a steady income as former miners who took cases with the firm paid subscription fees to the NUM during the case and an “administration fee” of up to £750.

Many had left the union and so were asked to rejoin. They claim, however, that they were not told other legal firms would take their cases for free.

This allegation has now been backed by the Law Society in two cases where it ruled that Raleys had not properly advised the miners of their “liability” to the NUM.

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