Question reference: S5W-15578
- Asked by: Alison Johnstone, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 23 March 2018
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has cost to extend the improved lump sum payment for chronic beneficiaries of the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme from surviving infected people to (a) widows, (b) widowers and (c) estates.
Answer
In accordance with the report of the Financial Review Group, only living beneficiaries with chronic hepatitis C infection only (formerly known as Stage 1 by the Skipton Fund) were eligible for the additional £30,000 lump sum that was awarded on the basis of long-term health impact. Four of these additional lump sum payments have been made by the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme to the estates of the deceased where the beneficiaries died after 1 April 2016, before they had the opportunity to claim the additional lump sum in the financial year 2016-17; this therefore cost £120,000. The new financial support arrangements have been in place from 2016-17, although they were initially delivered by the Skipton Fund in late 2016-17 as a transitional measure. The Skipton Fund therefore also made additional lump sum payments to estates where the beneficiary had died after 1 April 2016, prior to the management of the scheme transferring to the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme on 1 April 2017.