Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will extend the life assurance scheme to care workers in privately funded care homes.

The Government has launched a life assurance scheme for frontline National Health Service and social care staff. The scheme is non-contributory and pays a £60,000 lump sum where staff who had been recently working where personal care is provided to individuals who have contracted COVID-19 die as a result of the virus.

Care workers are eligible, providing that their work requires them to be present in frontline settings where COVID-19 is present. Employees of all care homes registered by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are eligible, regardless of how they are funded.

Any social care staff working in non-CQC registered settings are also eligible, if their employer receives public funding.