AIBU about the £60k payment just for NHS staff

[Westroyd1]

I know this might sound unreasonable but please take the time to read my reason.
I am an NHS member of staff, I fully support the work the NHS are doing, but the recent announcement by the government to give families of NHS staff who have died from COVID-19 a £60k payment has really unsettled me. Don't get me wrong they have died doing the job they love and under very very unfortunate circumstances but the reason it feels wrong to me personally is that my mum had a bowel operation mid-Feb that went catastrophically wrong and led to her being in ICU for 4 weeks and was just at the point of being able to talk, eat a little whilst tube fed and had managed to take a few steps on a very long road to recovery at week 7 post-op only to contract/become symptomatic with COVID-19 on 8th April within the hospital which could only have been from staff as she had no contact with anyone else and had not left the building within that time.
She passed away on 11th April from COVID-19.
I am sorry but I feel bitter that the government are not taking into account patients who have died from COVID-19 through no fault of their own within the hospitals and if feels unfair. AIBU???

Sorry for you loss but I agree with everything spongedog said.
I think YABU op.

My mother died of COVID in a care home and like your mother must have caught it inside the care home. I don't feel like you about the 60k. I do feel there are loads and loads of people working in areas that bring them into contact with people and if there is money going around it should be spread fairly. I do think as someone said this policy is divisive.

Its for care workers / social workers etc as well. Pretty crap compensation for the loss of a husband/wife / parent.

I am so sorry about your mom.

Just wanted to reiterate what other posters have stated.

They are acting as an employer by offering a payout of £60,000 for any of their employees who have died as a result of Covid 19.

In no way is this compensation, but will be funds immediately available for those families who will have suffered.

As far as other front line services, police, fire fighters etc, they will have their own, 'death in service,' which will be part of their terms of service.

Haven’t read all responses so this may already have been picked up.

It hasn't been confirmed yet that there will be no expectation of the families to sign away their right to take legal action.

Yes it has, Matt Hancock answered Peston on this on yesterday’s briefing.

@Gingerkittykat, DP works for one of the emergency services but in a "civilian" role and they have a death in service benefit.

Whether it's as generous as it is for those who die "in the line of duty" I have no idea, but I suspect it isn't. Their pay and conditions are generally quite different.

I think it’s in recognition of the fact that people suffering covid generally attended NHS premises and were treated by NHS staff.

The NHS is where you go when you are sick. It has a direct link with covid.

By contrast, although other workers might due from covid, it’s harder to assume they caught the disease at work. You don’t present to the postman if you are sick.

I’m surprised people don’t see why the government have introduced this. I hope they ensure that all key workers get some level of cover - they were always going to start with the NHS, it’s the obvious place to begin looking at this. You wouldn’t start with awarding money to teachers, would you?

I’m sorry about your mum, OP. I’m sure you are very angry with the NHS right now. That doesn’t mean their staff shouldn’t get recognition for the work they’ve done. The two issues are not related.

And yes, NHS workers get death in service payments.

It’s a death in service benefit. My old firm did this and I am not a key worker. They are going to extend it to other key workers

YABU

Understand your general frustration, bigger issue for me with this death in service payment is that it’s distracting from the fact that the deaths were avoidable (rather than inevitable) had the government responded to this threat quickly and decisively, including ensuring sufficient PPE was available to guarantee safety of staff.

There are so many contradictions in the way the Gmt have handled this not least because the vast majority sit in their ivory towers and have no idea how most people in UK live

• the assumption from the start that working from home was a realistic option for a percentage of the population where it clearly was not (middle / upper middle class blindness)

• (with absolutely NO disrespect for the NHS) the PR campaign of hero worshiping the NHS brought upon the population of the UK in a very sudden and purposeful way which in no way addresses the underfunding and under payment of NHS workers in general and elevates the NHS (and on the ground NHS workers who are just doing their job) to a status they did not invite and who have responded to that either by assuming some individual God like status due to the weekly national bow down and worship or have … actually died in the line of service (and if it was me on the death of a loved one I would deeply resent the weekly guilt induced clapping in the cirumstances

• the whole furlough scheme (un thought out not paid for and very misunderstood)

• the ignoring of "what goes on behind closed doors" which is bad enough in normal times but at least if your OH is beating you up you can escape to a relative or even the park for a few hours. But the gmt (not withstanding what PPatel says) just pays lipservice

and from my point of view the "well just shut up because we are GOD culture of the Gmt / police and thereon the NHS" where other morbid conditions are (without any communication) ignored on an indefinite basis because the UK's response to COVID19 in the context of international responses to COVID19 is so much more important than the individual citizens of the UK and their health.

Maybe just maybe one day people will look back on this and (aside from the tragedy of significant numbers of people's deaths due to COVID19 which I do not diminish) will think this whole thing has been above all the biggest and most successful government PR campaign in history

I am so sorry for your loss I am sure you haven't even come close to processing it yet

This scheme is a death in service scheme, paid by the employer to the employees family. This is recognition by the Government that frontline NHS staff are literally putting their lives on the line by having prolonged physical contact with covid-19 positive patients. I am sure you know this poses a massive risk to the health of these people. It really isn't the same as non-care workers. I don't know any shop staff, for example, who have up close physical contact with positive patients for hours at a time? The government know they are putting these staff members at further risk by providing inadequate PPE.

Really families would rather that their beloved family member had not been at risk whilst carrying out their jobs All would prefer to have their family member than the 60k.

Every single death is a tragedy, whatever the cause, no one is saying otherwise. But this scheme is for employees, not patients.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

I think it’s a crude instrument to incentivise staff to keep turning up for work in a dangerous environment.

These are strange times and I won’t begrudge their families that, though I agree that there are plenty of others who’s families should also be compensated. I wonder if the nhs have a death in service payout?

What happened to your mum is awful and I’m very sorry for your loss.

But it’s not related to what is essentially a death in service payment for NHS staff. A far less generous death in service than my next of kin would get from my low paid public sector job where I’m extremely unlikely to die as a direct result of doing my job.

"raising millions (which is bonkers, quite frankly, it is a National Health Service, it is the governments job to fund it, it is not a charity"

I genuinely don't understand why we need to raise charity money for the NHS

People are so naive. The £60k payment is to discourage bereaved families of NHS and care workers from suing the Govt for its negligent handling of the crisis. Damages for financial loss over the otherwise likely lifetime of an earner would be far higher than £60k.

YABU. DH's death in service is a LOT more than 60K and it's not unheard of for a lot of industries to have these payments. Speaking as a nurse, if I die due to this I'm glad my service would be recognised and my family would have some sort of recompense.

Sorry for your loss but YABU. They died doing their job, they just went to work to get paid like everyone else does and it killed them.

It’s always unfortunate when a hospital patient dies but it sadly happens sometimes,
I don’t think the family deserve a payout unless there were catastrophic faults by NHS staff leading to their death.

This money is for those who die from coronavirus but would not normally get this payment because they are not in scheme.

Is this through choice or ineligibility?

People are so naive. The £60k payment is to discourage bereaved families of NHS and care workers from suing the Govt for its negligent handling of the crisis.

That does sound more like our dear government.

Sorry for your loss

Yabu. The point is to provide limited death in service benefits to those people either returning to work post retirement or who have been priced out of the pension scheme by the tax changes.

Ultimately most will get a higher payout from the standard death in service benefit if they are members of the pension scheme.

Is this not death in service, if I died my family would receive a payment from my employer. Yabu

It is also a scheme that will likely mean less interest in the government's absolute demolition job on bereavement benefits in the last few years.

Had this happened before 2017 then anyone with children who was widowed (if their spouse was under state pension age) would have received a non-means tested payment every week until the child was 18. Basically in recognition at the loss of the other income.

Now they'll get £350 a month for 18 months and a lump sum. Then that's it.

There is death in service payment available for people who have worked for the NHS meeting certain criteria. I think this is in addition and is an attempt at a sop to public opinion, especially when it comes to orphaned children etc. potentially suing the government for incompetence.

NHS workers haven't had a pay rise in 10 years yet have been asked to do more with less. . . . for those 10 years. Fact. Some people on these threads seem to not realise that. Sort them out with proper pay and benefits and "we're sorry your loved one is dead" money wouldn't be necessary.