'Old cases'

Records relating to 'old cases', injury compensation claims by mineworkers injured before the commencement of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946 in July 1948.

Mineworkers injured before 5 July 1948, the date on which the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946 commenced, were not entitled to industrial injury benefit under the new legislation. In 1948 the Minister of Fuel and Power approved a scheme under powers conferred by Coal Industry Nationalization Act 1946, which also applied to beneficiaries of a pneumoconiosis scheme started in 1943. Under the scheme eligible mineworkers received a weekly payment at full rate for men totally incapacitated, at half-rate for men partly incapacitated and out of work, and at quarter rate for men partly incapacitated and in work. These claims were known as 'old cases' and they continued for as long as the beneficiaries survived. 'Old cases' also included workmen's compensation cases for which pre-nationalization colliery companies had liability.