Just five applications for €100,000 payment for health workers who died of Covid in service

The Department of Health has asked hospitals and other healthcare facilities where staff died from Covid-19 to track down families eligible for a €100,000 payment.

Just five claims have been made to date for the death in service ex-gratia scheme for healthcare workers announced by the Government last March.

This is just a fraction of the 22 deaths of healthcare workers who contracted Covid-19 at work, as recorded by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre last February. Most of these deaths occurred in the first year of the pandemic.

The scheme, which is administered by Pobal, provides for a tax-free payment of €100,000 to be made to the estate of any healthcare worker who died having contracted Covid-19 in the course of their employment.

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The department says it hopes to be in a position to make the first payments under the scheme shortly. “The Department of Health and Pobal have taken some time with these first claims to ensure that the processes required are simple and robust,” a spokesman told The Irish Times. “The department is also reaching out directly to healthcare facilities that have employed workers who have passed away to ask them to bring the scheme to the attention of impacted families.”

Eligibility for the scheme has been defined broadly to include all healthcare workers who were designated “essential” during the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes GPs and others working in primary care, including administrative staff, as well as disability services staff, and private staff in nursing homes and throughout the healthcare system.

The €100,000 payment by the department will be made to the legal personal representative (executor/administrator) of the deceased person. The scheme is similar to arrangements made in other countries. In the UK a payment of £60,000 has been agreed in respect of healthcare workers who died in similar circumstances.

The Government last January announced a separate €1,000 pandemic bonus payment to frontline health workers during the pandemic. Of 190,000 staff eligible for the tax-free payment, 66,000 had yet to receive it by November. Most of these work for private or voluntary organisations and are not on the direct HSE payroll.