The court of appeal has upheld a compensation scheme set up for scores of women who say they were sexually abused by Jimmy Savile, paving the way for claims to continue.

The three appeal judges heard the case after a charity which is the major beneficiary of Savile’s estate raised concerns about the plan at a hearing in London last month.

Lawyers representing the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust said the scheme – agreed between the estate executor, the NatWest bank, and lawyers representing alleged victims – did not assess the “validity” of claimants and lacked a “process of evaluation”.

By October NatWest had processed 68 claims, and a further 131 remain to be considered. Of the 68 claims, 11 have been accepted at a total value of £353,125, including costs. A further 11 claimants have been offered reduced settlements amounting to £303,500; 36 claims (in the value of £1.14m) have been rejected and further information has been requested in the remaining 10. The value of the 131 remaining claims is about £2.27m and their allowable costs would amount to about £1m.

The scheme contains a list of eight categories of assault, ranging from rape to indecent assault involving touching over clothing, and provides a tariff rate of damages for each category. The scheme also provides for existing claimants whose claims are agreed to receive £10,000 for their costs up to the approval of the scheme and for further costs (for all agreed claims) to be paid in fixed amounts varying from £6,000 to £3,500 depending on whether a psychiatric report was obtained and by whom.

Appeal judges were asked to consider the case after rulings by a high court judge. Mr Justice Sales sanctioned the compensation scheme – despite objections from the trust – following a high court hearing in London in February. He also refused to order that NatWest be replaced as executor by PennTrust.

Judges heard that Savile, who died in October 2011 aged 84, had been the subject of an ITV television programme broadcast in October 2012. Savile, who worked at the BBC, had been accused of being a “serial child abuser and sex offender” – and was alleged to have abused people in hospitals.

Following the broadcast, a “large number” of people had come forward to make claims that they were abused by him.

Lawyers said the number of people making compensation claims after alleging they were abuse victims had risen above 200.

The BBC and the Department of Health were legally represented at the appeal court hearing. A lawyer said the health department had received more than 60 compensation claims. Judges were told that the BBC was also scrutinising claims.

Robert Ham QC, for the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust, said the compensation scheme agreed did not assess the validity of claimants.

“It describes itself as a scheme to provide compensation,” Ham told appeal judges. “It doesn’t describe itself as a scheme to scrutinise and assess claims. As a matter of common sense these sort of situations are likely to attract numbers of fraudulent claims. One certainly cannot proceed on the basis that the claims are valid – or even presumptively valid.”

Liz Dux, a lawyer at Slater & Gordon, which represents victims, said: “Today’s ruling will bring great relief to Savile’s many victims who have been living with the uncertainty of not knowing whether they would be blocked in their claims. They just want some recognition of what they have been through so they can then be able to move on with their lives.”

She added: “The court were told in length about the system of scrutiny that exists under the scheme and were satisfied that there were sufficient checks and balances in place. The court of appeal held that they had no doubt that many of the claims were meritorious and would be successful if litigated. This is not a charter for fraudulent claims.”

Dux pointed out that claims would be scrutinised independently by a judge and then go back to the high court for ratification. She emphasised that no money had been paid out and none would be until all claims were assessed.

“We anticipate it will be all over by the summer,” said Dux. “The victims don’t want this to be dragged out.”

But should the Savile trust become insolvent, claimants would stand to receive, for example, 60% of every pound. In a setback for victims, appeal judges overturned a ruling Mr Justice Sales had made about who should pay the costs of the litigation. Their decision means that money will have to be taken out of Savile’s estate to cover legal fees – reducing the amount available to be paid out as compensation to victims.

Experts had initially put the value of Savile’s estate at around £4m. But in February, Mr Justice Sales said a “range of expenses” had been incurred and the estate’s value had been reduced to about £3.3m.