Social Care Worker Death in Service Payment

The Coronavirus (COVID-19): social care worker death in service payment scheme recognises the vital contribution of social care workers in tackling the coronavirus pandemic. It was introduced following the high risk workers are exposed to when performing frontline duties and providing hands-on care to coronavirus patients.

This scheme provides a one-off payment of £60,000 to a named survivor of a social care worker who has died in service as a result of, or the suspected result of, contracting COVID-19 at work.

The scheme will be eligible to claim retrospectively to 17 March 2020.

Who is eligible?

You can apply to the scheme, regardless of existing pensions or life assurance cover, if you are the survivor of a member of the social care workforce who has died in service and any of the following apply:

They had been working in a social care setting in the course of their employment, including self-employed during the period of the COVID-19 outbreak, had been working in environments where it may reasonably be concluded that they contracted the disease in the course of performing their duties; and had COVID-19 as a factor in their death documented on their death certificate, or
Their cause of death is known or suspected (but not necessarily documented on a death certificate) to be at least partly attributable to COVID-19 infection, and they had been working in, or adjacent to, areas in which there had been persons with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis being cared for

How to apply

The applicant should complete parts 1 to 13 of the claim form and attach copies of the full death certificate and marriage/civil partnership certificate, or any other requested supporting documentation, where applicable.

Supporting documentation should still be scanned and emailed, where possible. We appreciate that there will be cases where a scanned document cannot be provided, so we are now accepting electronic photographs of documents (providing that they are clear and complete images of the entire document).

The completed form and supporting documents should be returned to the deceased’s employing authority for completion. They will forward the form and documentation to the Scottish Government.

What happens next?

Part 14 of the claim form should be completed by the Social Care Workers employer, or beneficiary if they were self-employed, who should then, as soon as reasonably practical, pass the application to Scottish Ministers for determination by emailing the completed form along with any supporting documentation to SocialCareDiS@gov.scot.

Please note no personal or sensitive information should be submitted to SocialCareDiS@gov.scot if it relates to a general query and should only be provided if specifically associated to a claim.

It is the responsibility of each organisation involved in the claim process to ensure the data they collect and retain complies with the relevant UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Appeals procedure

Claims for the NHS Scotland and Social Care Coronavirus Life Assurance Scheme 2020 should be submitted by the employer of eligible dependents of a social care worker who has died in service.

All decisions made regarding the claim by the Scottish Government will be fully explained in writing. If you are unhappy with the initial decision your employer will be able to explain this to you in full.

It is important for PAs to

Identify a beneficiary in the event of their death in service and to let that person know

For the PAs beneficiary it is important to know

The rules governing the death in service payment scheme
How to access the Claim Form
Knowing that the PAs employer has to make the application to Scottish Government for the payment