...have a client who is terminally ill with a disease brought on by previous employment. He was not in a union. His ex-employers are no longer about and he may be able to claim for his respiratory illness via the above provisions (the 79 Act). Question is: do such payments count as capital in full against m/tested bens? Can they be placed in trust to avoid capital rules (as in general Personal injury settlements)?

Can these payments under the 79 Act be claimed posthumously by the spouse/next of kin??

any help gratefully accepted!

This page has some info about payments under the Act, including that dependants may be able to claim posthumously:

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/cms.asp?Page=/Home/Customers/WorkingAgeBenefits/964

Payment would count as capital. Can't see any reason why it couldn't be placed in trust, but para 12 of Sch 10 to the IS regs only allows for trust funds to be disregarded where they a derived from a PI payment to the claimant, so once claimant dies widow will not be able to benefit from disregard.