Coronavirus (COVID-19): social care workforce payment – guidance for local authorities

Guidance on the payment process for the social care workforce £500 payment for local authorities who employ staff in adult social care services or children’s residential care, registered with the Care Inspectorate.


Payments 

Payment form submission and completion

Local authorities should complete the HSCP / LA summary claim form  provided or eligible staff as detailed in the Eligibility section. Staff will receive the taxable payment of £500 pro rata. Only one form should be completed per local authority that provides information for all eligible staff. This will be paid through a new grant scheme to local authorities from March onwards prior to payments being made through payroll. Payments made will be fully funded of such an amount that, once employer National Insurance contributions (NICs), Apprenticeship Levy costs and any other employer costs are deducted in the usual way, eligible staff will receive £500 pro rata. Completed forms should be submitted to socialcare500@gov.scot.

Payments

Payments should be made to staff through normal payroll to ensure income tax and national insurance are correct, and to facilitate notification to DWP and Social Security Scotland where applicable.

Timetable

  • guidance live for local authorities and HSCPs - w/c 8 March
  • work undertaken within local authorities and HSCPs to identify eligible staff - estimated to take at least 3 weeks to undertake this work
  • payroll run - April
  • costs reported to Scottish Government - following payroll run
  • Scottish Government issue grant letters with funding - within 7 days of receipt of cost information

We have authorised payments from the end of March, it is expected that all payments can and will be made to employees in the April payroll.

In order to minimise delay we ask that every effort is made to meet the April payroll deadline however, we acknowledge that there may be exceptional circumstances where this is not possible and the payment may be required to run in to the May payroll – if this is the case, please inform us by email socialcare500@gov.scot.

Following any complaint resolution by Scottish Government a process will be agreed with the local authority to provide funds to process the payment within a reasonable timescale.

Employers should contact their staff as soon as possible to provide them with information about the payment. A standard form of words is provided in the Communication Templates section. This also seeks responses from staff who have concerns about receiving the payment and who have since left or retired.

Staff who have concerns about the potential impact on their benefits should seek advice. Employers are encouraged to work with these staff to consider options, for example taking the payment in instalments over a period of time, in order to minimise impact on benefits. We may ask for information on the total numbers and FTE numbers of staff who have notified you of concerns and where necessary will discuss potential alternative approaches to the payment.

A separate timetable will be put in place for making payments to eligible staff who have since left or retired. 

Further information about how these circumstances will be handled is provided in the leavers, tax and benefits and concerns over receiving payment sections.

Contact

Email: socialcare500@gov.scot

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