Coronavirus (COVID-19): social care worker death in service payment

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

Eligible workers may include staff working in the following services:

• Adult care homes

• Residential child care, including secure care

• Care at Home (including Housing Support)

• Other registered social care workers

• Auxiliary and catering staff

• Casual social care staff

• Social Care Personal Assistants

• Mental Health Officers

• Non-registered social care workers

• Social workers and related paraprofessional roles

In addition to the above eligible workers, staff listed below may also be eligible including:

• Bank social care staff

• Catering staff within social care settings

• Auxiliary staff in social care settings

• Agency staff working in the above services