FOUR Cumbria County Council workers in South Lakeland claim they have missed out on thousands of pounds in equal pay cash after their paperwork was ‘lost’.

The home carers, who have worked for the authority for more than 12 years, say claims they made in 2003 have halved in value because evidence of their initial application for compensation cannot be found.

The four have now been told they will have to re-start the process from scratch.

As claims can only be backdated six years this means the maximum number of years they can be compensated for is reduced from 12 to six.

One of the women, a Kendal-based home carer who asked not to be named, said the lost paperwork had cost her around £16,000 in compensation, leaving her ‘angry and frustrated’.

She said: “We don’t know what happened to the original paperwork, but the county council is blaming the union, the union is blaming the solicitors and the solicitors are blaming the employment tribunal. Everybody is blaming everybody else and nothing is getting done.”

Another South Lakeland-based home carer said: “It’s a big shock to discover our claims have been lost. The way we’ve been treated is diabolical.”

A Cumbria County Council spokesman said: “ "Any employee who lodged an equal pay claim through the employment tribunal would have received a reference number and date that the claim was registered from the tribunal.

“In many cases, the trade unions lodged these claims with the tribunal on behalf of their members. Neither the trade unions nor solicitors have been able to provide the county council with any evidence that these alleged claims were lodged in the first place; there is no tribunal reference number nor date that the claims were lodged.

“We can only make payments to individuals that we know are legitimately in the system - the question of how these alleged claims were 'lost' is not an issue for the county council, it's one for the relevant trade unions or solicitors and the employment tribunal where they were lodged."