Nick Brown, the minister for work and pensions, has agreed to lift the rule that prevents workers who have been made redundant receiving help from the employment services within three months.

John Grogan, MP for Selby, has been pressing for the regulations to be changed for the Selby miners.

In July, UK Coal announced its three pits - Wistow, Stillingfleet and Riccall - would be closed by the spring 2004.

Training support

The lifting of regulations means over 2,000 miners employed in the coalfield will be eligible for immediate support under the government's Job Centre Plus programme.

Mr Grogan told BBC News Online the change in regulations would help the area, as there was no hope the redundancies could be averted.

"People have all sorts of ideas for job-related training they would like to do," he said.

"In some cases, there are lorry drivers - others wanted to train to be a teacher - and with these regulations lifted you can make a start at it."

The average age of the 2,100 staff working at the three Selby pits is 45.