Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the £60,000 death-in-service lump sum payment in respect of covid-19 will be available to the families of contract workers in (a) hospitals and (b) care homes.

The Government has announced a life assurance scheme for frontline National Health Service and social care staff. The scheme is non-contributory and pays a £60,000 lump sum where staff who had been recently working where personal care is provided to individuals who have contracted COVID-19 die as a result of the virus.

Staff working in hospitals and care homes are eligible, providing that their work requires them to be present in frontline NHS or social care settings where COVID-19 is present.

As well as NHS employees, the scheme also covers staff who work for organisations that support the delivery of NHS services or work on an NHS contract, such as agency and bank staff. Within social care the scheme covers all staff employed by an organisation registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide social care services. In addition, any members of the social care workforce in non-CQC registered organisations are also eligible, if their employer receives public funding.