THE fight to speed up compensation payouts to sick miners and their families will go to the High Court on Monday with a hearing that could lead to higher and faster payments for claimants.

The move follows a government U-turn on its initial proposals to introduce compulsory payoffs for chest disease compensation to ex-miners and their families.

The Argus is campaigning to speed up the system, which has left thousands of miners and their families still waiting for payments nearly seven years after a High Court ruling ordered the government to pay them compensation.

Bleddyn Hancock, general secretary of miners' union NACODS, said a High Court hearing early next week could result in faster payments being offered to thousands of claimants and the compensation process being speeded up.

"We welcome this U-turn by the government and look forward to discussing an optional scheme that may well result in the remaining claims being settled much earlier," he said.

More than 160,000 claims have been settled since a Handling Agreement was signed in September 1999, but 400,000 claims still remain outstanding.

Last month the government admitted it would take until 2011 before all the claims were settled under the current system.

Mr Hancock said he hoped the new proposals would halve the number of outstanding claims, leading to all the compensation payouts being settled in just three years.

Mr Hancock said: "We are waiting to see what is being proposed and will look at it over the weekend. We are looking at the possibility of banded payments being offered to claimants, and they will have the option of accepting.

"What we found unacceptable was the proposal of compulsory payments which could only be appealed against in the courts."

Mr Hancock said he was fighting to ensure South Wales claimants, who have the highest average payouts in the country - around £11,000 - did not lose out on any compensation based on UK averages.