THE Government was last night urged to ease the hidden plight of thousands of Vibration White Finger (VWF) compensation claimants.

Solicitors said they were concerned over the treatment of some former mine workers who, because their jobs did not ordinarily involve vibrating power tools, had to prove they used them.

Up to 7,000 men in this "group three" category have yet to have their claims investigated to see if they can be accepted under the Government's compensation scheme.

Some claims were submitted as early as the late 1990s under the scheme, which closed to new claimants in October 2002.

VWF -caused by the prolonged use of vibrating power tools -is a painful condition that numbs hands and fingers and has a crippling effect on joints.

Last night, solicitor Roger Maddocks, a partner in Irwin Mitchell's Newcastle office, said: "Some of these cases have been hanging around for quite a long time.

"And these people will have to wait quite a lot longer because, at the moment, the Government is saying they will not complete their investigation into these cases until this time next year. We are sceptical as to whether they will complete this timescale, because every time they have given projections, they have fallen behind with that."

Unlike those working directly at the coalface, men who worked in roles such as colliery overmen and pit deputies are subject to a more rigorous claims process and have to submit statements from witnesses to show they used power tools.

The company handling claims for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is understood to be investigating only about four group three claims a week.

Mr Maddocks said: "The Government did not anticipate the numbers in this category and have not had the resources in place to deal with it. The solution would be to either streamline the investigation process or put more resources in or both."

A DTI spokesman said group three claimants made up fewer than a tenth of VWF claimants, who have already received more than £285m in total in the North-East.

He said: "We are keen to get these particular claims moving and have taken a number of steps in this direction already.

"By this time next year, our aim is to have all these contested claims sorted out so we can crack on with payments."

The spokesman rejected claims that the process was not moving fast enough. He said: "There is a balance to be struck and we do have to have a certain amount of propriety and make sure that people who are making these claims are doing so legitimately and have the right evidence."