Residents and fishermen outraged as BP’s compensation fund administrator denies ‘loss of income’ claims.

”]“I just got off the phone with Feinberg’s people and I’m really upset,” says seafood merchant Michelle Chauncey from Barataria, Louisiana.

Her business, which sells wholesale and retail crabs, has not provided her with an income since the end of May, and her home is being foreclosed.

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg’s Washington-based firm, Feinberg Rozen, has been paid $850,000 a month by BP to administer a $20bn compensation fund and claims process for Gulf residents and fishermen affected by the Deepwater Horizon explosion last April.

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), which Feinberg manages, was set up after negotiations between BP and the Obama administration, but over recent months there has been growing concern among the Coast’s residents that Feinberg is limiting compensation funds to claimants in order to decrease BP’s liability.

Late last month, Feinberg told Bloomberg Television that he anticipates that about half of the $20bn fund should be enough to cover claims for economic losses.

“It remains to be seen, but I would hope that half that money would be more than enough to pay all the claims,” he said.

Read the rest of this story at Al-Jazeera English.