CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed new rules allowing all victims of asbestos – including the wives of former York carriageworks employees – to get swift compensation from the Government.

Until now, only people who were exposed to lethal asbestos dust during their work were able to claim state compensation, said Kim Daniells, the founder and chairwoman of the York Asbestos Support Group.

But now anyone contracting the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma can claim the lump sum payment, including housewives who used to wash their husbands’ overalls and breathed in the deadly dust.

The Press reported earlier this decade how Lilian Browne died in 2000, aged 82, after developing mesothelioma.

Her husband, Cyril, had worked as an engineer at the carriageworks and changed out of his dirty overalls on arriving home after a day’s work.

In 2006, the newspaper reported how Marjorie Fox, 61, of Acomb, used to shake and then wash her carpenter husband’s work clothes after he came home from work, and she believed this had caused the illness.

Kim Daniells said today that Pensions Minister Lord McKenzie had said in a letter that people would now receive the lump sum within six weeks of claiming.

She said the payments were calculated on a sliding scale, from a few thousand pounds to perhaps £20,000.

People diagnosed as suffering from mesothelioma often needed swift payments of compensation to help pay mortgages and other bills, and their expected life span was often short.

“Although there are concerns about certain aspects of the scheme, we generally welcome the new arrangements as they extend compensation to people who have previously had no financial support or assistance,” she said.

She revealed that if victims or their families subsequently made a successful compensation claim from employers responsible for the asbestos dust, such as the carriageworks, the amount paid by the Government in the lump sum would be deducted from the amount payable and would be returned to the Government to help pay lump sums to future victims.

“Until now, insurers have benefited from a windfall – deducting the award from the damages and keeping it themselves. In creating the scheme, the Government intended that the claimant should be no worse off and the recouped sums from the insurers should help to fund the enhanced scheme.”