Kenneth Feinberg, administrator fo GM's victims compensation fund, approved another round of benefits for victims.

Even as a special victims’ compensation fund approaches its deadline, the number of deaths now linked to faulty General Motors ignition switches has jumped to 50, nearly four times more than the automaker had originally estimated.

The death toll still could rise as the fund’s administrators examine evidence. So far, more than 3,000 claims have been submitted to the fund set up by GM last year to provide compensation for those killed or injured due to a safety defect the automaker has admitted ignoring for a decade.

While it could take months to complete its review, compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg and his team plan to stop accepting new claims at the end of this week. But the death toll very well could continue to rise.

Feinberg, who also handled victims funds linked to the 9/11 attacks and the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, was appointed to head the compensation by GM CEO Mary Barra. The automaker had come under intense criticism when it announced the recall of 2.6 million vehicles due to faulty ignition switches early last year. It later acknowledged that various managers had vetoed recalling the vehicles.

Facing a pair of Congressional inquiries, a growing list of lawsuits and a potential criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, GM announced the compensation fund, estimating it would eventually spend about $400 million to recompense victims. The maker now says that could increase to $600 million.

Feinberg and his team announced a complex formula to cover those killed or injured in crashes caused by the faulty switches – which could inadvertently shut off a vehicle and disable its airbag system. For those killed, compensation starts at $1 million.

At this point, 50 fatality claims linked to the airbags have been approved out of a total of 338 filed with the compensation fund. And 58 of those claims have been rejected as ineligible. Of the 2,730 claims related to injuries, 75 have been approved, another 328 rejected.

(GM fatality count rises to 49. For more, Click Here.)

Until the compensation fund went to work, GM had said it knew of just 13 deaths caused by the faulty ignitions.

While Feinberg will stop accepting claims at the end of this week, the fund’s work will likely continue for many months. It is still reviewing those other claims, in a number of cases assisting in the effort to provide the necessary level of documentation. For those making claims that isn’t always easy, as some of the crashed may have occurred as much as a decade ago.

That led GM to agree to extend the original deadline by a month, to Jan. 31.

(Click Here for details about GM’s important win in recall court case.)

Once the fund has determined that a claim qualifies for compensation it makes an offer to the victim or surviving family members. They then have the choice of whether to accept. Last month, Deputy Administrator Camille Biros said 65 offers had been made, 41 being accepted. At that point, none had been rejected.

The compensation fund should help GM reduce the tangle of legal issues it faces over the ignition switch debacle, but it still faces a number of other lawsuits and the possibility that the Justice Dept. could eventually levy criminal charges. Some analysts believe the maker ultimately will face fines that could top $1 billion – much as Toyota did for mishandling its own issues with so-called unintended acceleration.

(To see more about why a Detroit zip code will raise your insurance, Click Here.)

GM has already paid a record $35 million fine to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for delaying the ignition switch recall. And that has led to calls for Congress to sharply increase the penalties automakers could face for delaying safety-related recalls.