MINERS whose health was shattered by years spent working underground say they feel betrayed by the union they trusted to get them the best deal for their claims.

Thousands of formerly loyal supporters parted with money when Raleys, the Barnsley solicitors’ firm which the union advised them to use, cut a slice off their compensation and handed it to the NUM.

This was done after they had signed legal papers. But many did not realise that they might have got a better deal elsewhere. They trusted a letter from Arthur Scargill in 1999 which said that their claim would be safe in Raleys’ hands.

Few realised that they could, instead, have approached dozens of solicitors who would not have deducted a penny from their award because the Government was effectively paying the costs of their claim.

Max Brown, 61, worked for 26 years as a miner at the now defunct Shireoaks Colliery, on the Nottinghamshire-South Yorkshire border, until he was made redundant in 1986. A sufferer from chronic bronchitis and pneumoconiosis, his quality of life is so poor that he is exhausted by walking up the stairs at his Worksop home. Even speaking has become a daunting challenge.

Mr Brown’s wife, Janice, recalls that one of their neighbours, another former miner, advised them to take their respiratory disease compensation claim to Raleys. They were initially pleased with the £25,000 settlement, albeit puzzled that more than £1,000 had been deducted in the form of an administration charge and a union membership fee. Now, they feel angry and frustrated.

The couple have complained to the Law Society and Mrs Brown says they want the union to be held to account for its actions. “We were never told that we could go to a different solicitor who wouldn’t take any money,” she said.

“It may not sound a lot to some people, but £1,000 means a lot when you are having to spend £2,200, as we have just done, on a portable oxygen concentrator so that my husband can sometimes leave the house.”

Peter Dunstan, 71, received a letter from Raleys in July 2000, advising him that “the basis for the future funding of your claim needs clarification”. He was told that he had three options: private funding, in which case he would be liable for costs; a conditional fee arrangement by which Raleys would deduct between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of his compensation; and a method Raleys recommended, a funding arrangement with the NUM.

Mr Dunstan, who spent 30 years as a miner at Manton Colliery, near Worksop, opted for the NUM funding and was subsequently amazed to discover that the Government was paying Raleys’ costs.

“They sent me papers to fill in and told me I had to sign or I was going to lose a lot of money,” he said. When Mr Dunstan — whose fingers are so numbed by the use of vibrating tools that he finds it difficult to read a newspaper — finally received his money, £660 had been deducted and sent to the NUM. “The NUM hasn’t done anything for me at all. It’s disgusting and I want my money back.”

Raleys handled claims for both respiratory disease and vibration white finger for Peter Wynn, 69, who was a miner for 26 years. In total, £955 was taken under the terms of his funding agreement with the NUM for the benefit of the union. “They all tell us that miners are the salt of the earth, but they’re just waiting to twist you,” he said.

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