Some miners were dismissed during the year-long dispute

The settlement for most of the men will mean a payout of about �20,000.

The denial of pension rights has long been a bitter legacy of the miners' strike for 1,060 men who were dismissed during the dispute.

Those who did not return to the pits or get new jobs lost all their rights to a pension.

Now the government is about to offer settlements to around 350 miners who failed to find new jobs.

It's superb news - it ends one of the long-standing injustice's from the 1984-5 strike Mick Clapham, the MP for Barnsley West and Penistone

The cash will go to a widow if a miner has died, though scores of those eligible for the funds have yet to be traced.

A small number of men dismissed during the dispute who were convicted of violence may not be paid, but energy minister Brian Wilson has promised to consider each case on its merits.

Mick Clapham, the MP for Barnsley West and Penistone told BBC News Online: "It's a great injustice we sought to remedy.

"After a series of meetings with the minister of energy he said he would restore part of their pension rights.