The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
SNP announces £500 bonus for NHS workers
Workers on the coronav irus front line are to get a £500 “thank-you” payment in recognition of their “extraordinary service” during the pandemic.
Ni cola Sturgeon announced the one- off payment to around 300,000 workers during her keynote speech at the SNP’s virtual conference, in which she also claimed independence was “essen t ia l” to recovering from the crisis.
The SNP leader cha l lenged the UK Government to make the £500 payment tax free, and unveiled other initiatives designed to ease the pain of the pandemic.
The cash will be paid “as soon as is practicable” to all NHS and social care workers employed since March 17, including those who have had to shield or have since retired.
The £180 million investment will benefit workers including nurses, porters, doctors, primary care staff, homecare workers, care home staff, hospice staff and residential child care staff.
“The Scottish Government will give every full-time NHS and adult social care worker £500 as a one-off thank-you payment for their extraordinary service in this toughest of years,” Ms Sturgeon said on the final day of the three-day conference.
The SNP leader said there were “no strings attached” to the payment. But she added that her administration did not have the power to make the payment tax- free, and called on Boris Johnson to ensure “NHS heroes” are not taxed on it.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said the £500 would “not make up for the years of pay restraint and austerity” that carers had imposed on them by “Tory and SNP ministers”.
“Many care home workers are part time so the fear is that they will end up with a derisory payment,” Mr Leonard said.
Ms Sturgeon used her speech to reassure activists she would be campaigning for a second independence referendum to be held in the “early part” of the next parliament.
With supporters frustrated by the UK Government determination to block another vote, she claimed independence was needed to rebuild after the coronavirus crisis.
“Our opponents will argue independence is a distraction from that; they could not be more wrong,” the SNP leader said.
“If we want to make sure the country we rebuild is the one we want it to be, with kindness, compassion, fairness, equality and enterprise at its heart – and not one built in the image of Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteers – we must work to the right plan, with all the tools we need to do the job.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused Ms Sturgeon of being “completely out of touch”.
Mr Ross said the SNP was relying on the almost £10 billion delivered to Sco t land from UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending to fund the initiatives announced by Ms Sturgeon.
The Tory leader pointed out the Fraser of Allander Institute estimated “around £1bn” of funding from the UK Government had not been spent.
“This was a series of SNP promises brought to you by Rishi Sunak’s spending,” Mr Ross said.
“It seems the SNP are finally getting around to using the vast sums of UK Government funding to fight the pandemic , although businesses and workers will be left wondering why they held off until SNP conference to finally get the money out the door on announcements that should have been made weeks ago.”
Mr Ross added: “All weekend she’s been talking up another divisive referendum next year while we’re in the middle of a pandemic. It’s completely out of touch with people across Scotland.”
In a bid to regenerate the economy by getting young people into work, it was also announced that businesses are to receive £5,000 for each apprentice they employ.
The grant will apply to those who emp loy apprentices aged 16-24, with the age range extended to 29 if the young person is coming out of care, disabled or from a minority community.
For apprentices over 25, the first minister pledged to pay £3,500.