The coal health compensation scheme has so far paid out more than £400 million to ex-miners and their families in Wales, the government has revealed.

Wales Office minister Don Touhig said on Monday that £295.5 million had been paid for respiratory claims and £104.9 million for Vibration White Finger.

Touhig, who chairs the Coal Health Claims Monitoring Welsh sub-group, urged ex-miners and their families to make any outstanding claims by the end of the month.

"This month marks the twentieth anniversary of the miners' strike and it is fitting that our monitoring group meets today to look at progress in the compensation of coal miners in Wales," said the minister.

"The end of March also sees the cut-off date for receipt of claims for respiratory diseases. Claims not handed in by March 31st will not be accepted under the compensation scheme and would have to be made under common law procedure.

"I would encourage any ex-miner or his family who think they may have a claim but who have not taken action to contact a solicitor and lodge their claim urgently."

Legal costs

Touhig also warned that some solicitors had been asking for money from prospective clients to take up their claims even though the government is paying all solicitors' legal costs.

"These requests for extra money are completely without justification and I emphasise again that no claimant should expect to pay for legal costs while the compensation scheme operates," said Touhig.

"In the meantime, the hard work being done in processing the claims as they come in continues. In the first two months of this year, £13.4 million has been paid – £11.5 million for respiratory claims and £1.9 million for Vibration White Finger."

The scheme is led by the Department of Trade and Industry, which says that across the UK around £2.5 million is being paid out every working day

Around 586,000 claimants have been registered and it is estimated that the government will spend around £6 billion on the compensation.