Covid death payments unavailable for staff who died in most recent waves

The families of any NHS and social care staff who died from Covid in the most recent waves will not be eligible for the Covid death assurance scheme launched at the start of the pandemic, it has emerged. 

The scheme closed on 31 March, despite pleas from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to keep it open. Since it was set up in April 2020, it has paid out £60,000 lump sums to the estates of 688 workers. A further 42 cases have been declined and 29 applications are still being processed.

The RCN wrote to then health and social care secretary Sajid Javid on 30 March, calling for the scheme to be extended. General secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen wrote: “The over-riding principle must be that no member of nursing staff who loses their life this year should be afforded any less respect and family support than one who died in 2020 or 2021…

“With a distinct possibility of new variants at any point, staff deserve assurance that they and their loved ones will not go unnoticed should they contract and ultimately lose their life to covid.”

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Source: HSJ, 19 August 2022