Families of people who died in the September 11th attacks on the United States are expected to receive an average of $1.6 million (€1.8 million) each in federal compensation, with the relatives of the highest-paid victims to get more, and those of lower-paid casualties less.
The compensation fund is the first of its kind in the United States. It is aimed at preventing thousands of legal claims from families of the dead, and from those who were injured, against the airlines that owned the hijacked planes which crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.
Each recipient is required to waive the right to sue over the disaster. However, the initial mixed reaction of lawyers representing some families indicated that many would not do so - and therefore courts might be tied up for years with claims for higher compensation.
New York Attorney General Mr Eliot Spitzer called the rules "deficient" and "unduly restrictive". Mr Bill Doyle, whose 25-year-old son Joseph worked at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Centre, said, "I think it's a disgrace". He considered the average compensation figure "incredibly low".
The tax-free awards will be made on economic assumptions of loss along with pain and suffering, according to Mr Kenneth Feinberg, special master of the Victims' Compensation Fund set up by US President George W Bush.
For an elderly low wage earner, the payment could be as low as $500,000, while that for a young high-earner with children could be $3 million-plus.
The fund will cost US taxpayers $6 billion, considerably less than previous estimates, as the number of fatalities has been scaled down by half to just over 3,000.
The amounts victims' families receive will be reduced by insurance and pension benefits received. However, charitable payments will be discounted. Meanwhile, over 100 entertainment organisations have banded together to offer free admission to the families of victims of the September 11th attacks.
They include the Metropolitan Opera, the Lincoln Centre, Barnum & Bailey Circus, the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association.
