The Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) (Payment of Claims) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2026 were made on 30 October 2026 and came into force a day later, on 31 October. The instrument, signed by Work and Pensions minister Stephen Timms and published on legislation.gov.uk, updates the 1988 rules that set lump-sum payments under the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979. The change is not retrospective. Regulation 1 says the revised rules apply only where a person first meets the conditions of entitlement on or after 31 October 2026. The Regulations extend to England and Wales and Scotland, and they were subject to approval by both Houses of Parliament under section 7(3) of the 1979 Act.
According to the explanatory note accompanying the instrument, the Department for Work and Pensions has used this amending measure to simplify the payment framework. The 1988 Regulations previously contained separate provisions and tables for different claimant groups. Under the new drafting, awards for disabled people and awards for dependants are both tied back to a single table in the Schedule. That matters because the instrument also aligns payment rates for dependants with the rates used for claimants disabled by disease. The note states that the previous top-up awards are being removed, and regulation 8 of the 1988 scheme, which set a minimum amount payable to a dependant, is omitted.
One of the most practical changes is the introduction of a firmer date rule for calculating an award. The amended Schedule now states that, for a living claimant under regulation 3, the relevant age is the person’s age on the date the Secretary of State receives the claim. For a dependant claim under regulation 4, the relevant age is the age of the deceased person at the date of death. The same provision also fixes the applicable payment rate by reference to the rate in force on that same date. For advisers and representatives, this reduces uncertainty about which uprated rate applies and should make award calculations easier to check against the Schedule.
The instrument also tidies the language used in the scheme. In regulation 2 of the 1988 Regulations, the definition of determination is rewritten so it refers to a determination made by the Secretary of State in connection with a claim for disablement benefit. The definition of percentage assessment is likewise updated by reference to section 108 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 and the former Industrial Injuries Acts. A related administrative change removes older references to assessment boards that no longer operate. In the dependant provisions, the previous reference to the Pneumoconiosis Medical Board, Special Medical Board or Silicosis Medical Board is replaced with a medical practitioner appointed to act on behalf of the Secretary of State.
Several stand-alone provisions disappear altogether. Regulation 5 of the 1988 Regulations, covering payment where death results from diffuse mesothelioma, is omitted. Regulation 6, which dealt with cases where pneumoconiosis is accompanied by tuberculosis, is also removed. The Schedule is redrafted to match that consolidation. The former Table 2 is omitted, older cross-references are stripped out, and the shared table heading is simplified. In practice, the DWP has moved away from a more fragmented set of calculation rules towards a shorter and more standardised payment structure.
The new regulation 7A addresses a gap that often causes difficulty in compensation cases: what happens if a claimant dies after making a claim but before payment is issued. The amended rules now say that payment must be made to the claimant’s personal representatives, provided the Secretary of State has been given legally sufficient evidence of probate, letters of administration or, in Scotland, confirmation as executor. This is a technical amendment, but it has direct administrative value. It should reduce uncertainty for bereaved families and representatives dealing with estates, and it gives the Department a clearer legal route for releasing money that had already been claimed during the person’s lifetime.
The explanatory note states that no full impact assessment has been prepared because the measure concerns financial assistance from the Department for Work and Pensions and falls outside the Better Regulation Framework. An Explanatory Memorandum has been published alongside the instrument. For claimant representatives, unions, solicitors and welfare advisers, the key date is 31 October 2026. Cases where entitlement first arises before that date remain under the earlier rules, while later cases move onto the revised scheme. The result is not a new compensation programme, but a recast set of payment rules for an existing statutory scheme.