BP fund administrator promises bigger, faster claims

NEW ORLEANS -- Victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should start getting bigger payments faster, the administrator of the fund set up to help them said Saturday. Kenneth Feinberg said he was responding to criticism from residents and businesses.

"Over the past few weeks, I have heard from the people of the Gulf, elected officials, and others that payments remain too slow and not generous enough," Feinberg said in a news release. "I am implementing new procedures that will make this program more efficient, more accelerated and more generous."

Claims also will be sorted by industry so more specific, uniform sets of standards can be applied, he said.

Claims still will be reviewed individually but they will be clustered so they are easier to compare, he said.

The Gulf Coast is still recovering from the spill triggered April 20, when a rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP PLC's undersea well.

In less than five weeks, the dedicated $20 billion fund that BP set up has paid out over $400 million to more than 30,000 claimants, the news release said.

Earlier this week, Feinberg made a key concession to victims when he said he would waive a requirement that wages earned by spill cleanup workers be subtracted from their claims of lost revenue.

Feinberg said that will help fishermen who have been working on spill response while they couldn't fish.