This is interesting because there are several ways the coal board can be held responsible it may be you have a house and new coal mining under your house has caused it to become unsafe or even collapsed and you may be entitled to compensation. Maybe you are a farmer in an area where coal is mined and your land has become unsafe to work on and you want to be compensated.

If you worked as a coal miner and now have a health problem that as your employer the coal board were negligent in your care you could have a claim for compensation. It is not just the workers in the pits but wives and other family members that were exposed to the dust and other hazards from the mines.

The coal board have fought hard not to pay compensation and even though the facts speak for themselves have won Asthma itself is another injustice, despite exposure to coal dust, stone dust, asbestos, shot firing fumes, diesel fumes, methane, monoxide, sulphur, nitrates and heavy metals and toxic oils, the Commissioners decided the lethal combination did not cause asthma, it merely made it worse so there is no entitlement to Industrial Injuries Benefits. )

This made it hard for compensation to be paid in certain cases sometimes people went to the grave without compensation as recently as this century this can be seen as bias. Those getting awards were deemed to be so sick that they were either dying or never going to get better and the coal boards would drag out making payments of compensation.

In fighting to get compensation you were not just fighting the coal boards but the British government to. It was decided that you could claim for a hot meal allowance if you sick to be able to cook your own but the government decided that on the claimants 65 birthdays this was to cease obviously in the governments eyes when you reach sixty five years of age you no longer need a hot meal.

What is sad is that farmers who had cows who were destroyed due to foot and mouth got more in compensation for one cow than some coal miners got awarded for a whole year of their life.

It is hardly surprising that deep bitter feelings of rage and injustice are rife in the coal mining areas where compensation should be a right not a fight.