Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of claims to the NHS and Social Care Coronavirus Life Assurance Scheme 2020 have been successful.

The NHS and Social Care Coronavirus Life Assurance (England) Scheme 2020 opened on 20 May 2020. As of 8 July 2020, 51 claim forms have been received, 19 of these have been assessed as eligible and the families notified that the lump sum will be paid once probate is received. The other 32 claim forms are currently being considered and no decision has yet been made. No claim form has yet been found to be ineligible.

No estimate has been made of the costs of successful claims although the upper limit will be the total number of COVID-19 deaths of health and social care staff. Mortality data from the Office for National Statistics shows there were 272 health care deaths and 268 social care deaths involving COVID-19 registered between 9 March and 25 May 2020 (in England, of those aged 20-64 years).