| Description | Date of birth:
Marital status: Married
Address: 11 Division Road, Shirebrook
Type of benefit claimed:
Type of injury: Injuries - spine
Further information: Claim for Workmen's Compensation Supplement. Paperwork dates back to 1946 ( when the accident occurred). In February 1947 Mr Kitts (NUM Area Compensation Agent) wrote to the NCB Insurance department to support a compensation claim on the grounds that the claimant had been in plaster of paris after hospital treatment for the period that was being claimed for. Reply from NCB was that they did not deal with Staveley Company's cases. Further letter from Mr Kitts sent to The Staveley Coal & Iron Co. Ltd. about the claim and the week under consideration (October 1946) was paid. In one letter it was noted that the claimant was a single man at the time of the accident andwould be treated as such for compensation purposes. Letter from claimant to NUM office: 'just a line to let you know I have wrote To Mansfield For a later date To be Fixed, For Hearing of my case, Because I have been waiting for a line from you, Regards the Report From my own, Doctor Stevens, I wish to be, Represented, By Someone that has Better 'Education', than myself before These Wolves, Thank you' (sic). Dr. Stevens letter states: ' This man's condition has not changed [...] He may be capable of work of some kind. It is very hard to say that anyone is incapable of work of any kind, but this is a district of heavy industry [...] He suffers from arthritis of his spine, and that is due to his accident, and is progressive'. Findings: 'On balance the Tribunal finds claimant capable of suitable light work'. After Tribunal, on 22 March 1957, the Compensation Agent wrote to NUM in London re the Workmen's Compensation & Benefit (supplementation) Act 1956, as details of cases that had been turned down like this one had been requested.Extra notes: Earlier letter from claimant (before appeal) states: 'I am one that has never been frightened of work. But I just can't do it. I am not the same chap two weeks together, They should bring a law out to Shoot us Fellows off out of the way.' Several other letters from claimant, one (April 1948) signs off: 'Married Man with a Fractured Spine, Trying To Carry on'. |