Current status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 April 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what specific funding is provided to family members, including parents or adult child carers, of people who have been infected with hepatitis C and/or HIV via infected blood or blood products.
The Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme makes payments to individuals infected with HIV and/or Hepatitis C by infected NHS blood or blood products. The Scheme also makes payments to beneficiaries' spouses, civil partners, long-term cohabitees, or dependent children following their death. Where an infected person has died and had not previously received a lump sum payment from the Scheme or one of the former UK-wide schemes, the beneficiaries of their estate, which could include parents or adult child carers, can receive this lump sum payment.
The Scheme also provides support and assistance grants, which can be used by parents or adult child carers providing care to their infected relatives, for example to pay for a carer(s). These grants normally need to be applied for by the scheme beneficiary, although where the beneficiary does not have the capacity to apply themselves due to a particular disability or notifies the Scheme that they want a named person to be able to correspond with the Scheme for them then a relative or other trusted person can apply on their behalf.