Pandemic bonus still not paid to more than half of non-HSE employees

Carers at private nursing homes have described a lack of respect over the bonus not being paid.

The pandemic bonus has been paid to less than half the non-HSE healthcare companies who submitted claims since early November.

A bonus payment of €1,000 was announced in January last year, and while payments have been made to HSE staff, complications arose in paying other groups, including private nursing homes.

Some 22,690 non-HSE employees have been paid the bonus, accounting for some 286 employers.

That represents 44% of the claims received to date, a HSE spokesman said.

New claims continue to be submitted every day, he said meaning there could still be thousands more people yet to be paid.

Payments made include staff working with 213 nursing home employers. There are an estimated 440 private and voluntary nursing homes in Ireland.

No end date

The payments are being overseen by KOSI Corporation, a consulting services and solutions company in Newry, Co Down.

It began issuing payments on November 24 and there is no firm end date for this process. 

A final estimate of staff who will ultimately receive this payment can also not yet be calculated, the HSE spokesman said, as KOSI is still assessing claims to identify potential duplicates or ineligible claims, while not all employers have yet submitted claims either.

Many carers delivering homecare packages for private companies under contract to the HSE are still waiting.

'Lack of respect'

One carer, who did not wish to be identified, said: “Perhaps we need to down our tools and hopefully we just might get recognition for our hard work, little to no reimbursement of cost of fuel to drive miles and miles daily to dwellings but above all, we just might get a little bit of respect for the work we do.” 

In October, over 2,000 letters of protest at delays were submitted to the Department of Health by nursing home workers including care staff and chefs.