There was some uncertainty reported at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic about whether social care workers were eligible for the UK Government’s Job Retention Scheme (JRS). While most social care employers did apply to the JRS for their eligible workers, some did not, and this resulted in a small number of workers receiving only statutory sick pay.
In light of these exceptional circumstances, Scottish Government has decided to pay those workers who were not placed on JRS, but were eligible for it for health reasons during the period the original JRS was open to applications (for example, because they fell into the categories of “Extremely high risk of severe illness” or “Higher risk of severe illness” as defined in the guidance issued by NHS 24), and who were paid either nothing at all, or a lower level of sick pay. This payment will provide them with the amount of pay they would have received from the JRS for relevant periods between March and October only.
Information is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-shielding-social-care-workers-support-scheme/ and will be updated regularly. The payment scheme is expected to open for applications in early January.
