Swann reflects on £60k payment for families of deceased NHS staff

Mr Hancock said that families of front line NHS and social care staff in England who die from Coronavirus will be entitled to a £60,000 payment. So far 82 NHS and 16 social care workers have died so far during the outbreak, he said. Unions have welcomed the announcement, but called for the scheme to be applied to more sectors.

A spokesman for the Department of Health in Northern Ireland said the Health Minister Robin Swann is considering a fair equivalent for NI.

“The Department of Health is committed to developing a fair and effective scheme for providing life assurance,” the spokesman said. “The Minister is currently considering which model represents the best fit for Northern Ireland and which most equitably reflects the important contributions being made for our health service.

“Different approaches are being taken in different UK regions and the Minister will reach decision shortly, having examined the different options.”

The NI Chairman of the British Medical Association, Dr Tom Black, said the families of some younger doctors might yet need to avail of such a support net in Northern Ireland.

“Doctors across the country have been working longer hours to address the pressures the pandemic has brought,” he said. “We would not want to see a single doctor who would tragically lose their life to this essential work being financially penalised.

“Scotland is offering standard death in service payments to those in that situation, but what is being proposed by Matt Hancock is a single one-off payment that would leave families without an ongoing pension.

“In the best case no-one would ever need to access this fund, but some doctors’ families might. In particular younger doctors who have not joined the pension scheme, those who have answer the call to return from retirement to assist with the pandemic, locum doctors who do not have a fixed employer and those who may have opted out of the pension scheme.

“We know that our Minister is still weighing up how best to use this funding in Northern Ireland and we would strongly urge that it is a full death in service benefit not a single payment. Our frontline doctors and their families deserve nothing less.”

It is understood the £60,000 payment in England may be on top of the normal pension death-in-service payment, which is twice someone’s salary. Scotland’s Finance Secretary Kate Forbes is also setting up a package of compensation a special death-in-service scheme.