We have been far more generous than is required by law

David Grimley, St Paul International Insurance

The insurance firm says it has received about 500 claims from passengers and victims' families.

It has settled payments totalling �4m with relatives of 20 people killed in the tragedy.

Negotiations are still under way with the remaining 11 bereaved families as well as victims receiving treatment.

'Personalised' treatment

The size of claims depends on whether the victim was married, whether they had children, their age and their likely loss in earnings.

St Paul's technical claims manager David Grimly said the family of a young married businessman with two children received the highest payout to date of �750,000.

He declined to give figures for the lowest payout or the average compensation.

But he said some people who were not legally entitled to claims had received payments because this was not a normal accident.

"We have been far more generous than is required by law," he told BBC News Online.

He said the company would normally be trying to settle other claims by this stage but was taking its time because of the nature of victims' injuries and ongoing treatments.

"In this particular incident we have tended to be a little more personalised in dealing with people," he said.

Railtrack to contribute

In June, Lord Cullen published a damning report into how the disaster happened, blaming a "lamentable failure" by Railtrack to respond to safety warnings before the accident.

Mr Grimley said Railtrack had not yet contributed to the payouts but he was expecting it to reimburse St Paul for some of the cost.

Railtrack said the compensation process aimed to get victims' families dealt with "quickly and fairly".

A Railtrack spokesman said: "The number one aim of the industry is making sure that relatives of the victims only deal with one party and do not have to make a myriad of claims against other parties.

"St Paul, as insurer of Thames Trains, is acting as the frontman for all the companies and then behind the scenes we discuss what level of contribution to make.

"We expect to make a contribution but the percentage split has yet to be determined."