A former miner whose years down the pits left him with crippling lung disease has blasted a £7,000 compensation offer as an "insult".

Nicholas Robson, 86, from Trimdon Station, County Durham, spent 35 years working at Deaf Hill and Ryhope colleries before a neck injury forced him to retire.

He now suffers from bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease a as a result of breathing coal dust and is barely able to leave the house without help from his daughter.

The ex-pitman says that after lodging a claim under the Government's coal health compensation scheme he was staggered to learn he would only receive the sum total of £7,213.

The Department of Trade and Industry, which is responsible for the scheme, say the offer is based on the length of Mr Robson's employment.

Under the terms of the scheme liability for the former British Coal was only accepted post 1954, 13 years before he quit the industry.

Mr Robson, who served with the RAF during the Second World War as an engine fitter, said: "I think this is a disgraceful offer and an insult.

"It is difficult to put into words how angry and I am and how I feel."

His daughter Lynne said: "We just cannot fathom it. My father has an illness which has wrecked his life.

"He does not want this money for himself, he wants to leave it for the grandchildren and to get so little seems unfair.

"The miners worked in atrocious conditions at a time when the country used to rely on them and this is what they get - it is a joke."

Mr Robson has asked his solicitors Blackett, Hart and Pratt to clarify the offer.

But it says its hands are tied as it is restricted by the terms of the scheme.

A formal disputes procedure is available for claimants to contest offers but only if they can provide new medical evidence their condition is worse than recorded previously.

A DTI spokesman said: "The compensation Mr Robson has received is based on the length of his employment after 1954 until he left British Coal in 1967.

"It was only after 1954 that steps were taken to prevent exposure to coal dust and this is the date we have always agreed is the earliest point from which claims are accepted."