Only one in three people seeking a support grant when asked to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace are receiving it, according to official figures that underline the extent to which gaps in the UK’s miserly sick pay regime are undermining the fight to contain Covid-19.
Low income workers can qualify for a £500 payment if they will lose income as a result of a request to self-isolate, but they or their partner usually need to be receiving certain benefits to be eligible.
Others would need to fall back on statutory sick pay, which at £96 a week makes the UK’s regime one of the least generous in the developed world, and some do not qualify for that either.
Figures from 34 local authorities, obtained through freedom of information requests by the CIPD body for HR professionals, show that just 35 per cent of claims for the £500 compensation were paid out overall.
There was also a huge variation between local authorities in both the number of claims received and the proportion paid, with Camden council approving almost 75 per cent and Wakefield 65 per cent, while Liverpool approved just 23 per cent and Bristol 22 per cent.
Ben Willmott, the CIPD’s head of public policy, said this “postcode lottery” showed the need for an urgent review of the policy to ensure that low paid workers could afford to self-isolate when needed — especially given plans for mass testing of key workers that would be bound to lead to larger numbers being asked to stay at home. Statutory sick pay was “nowhere near sufficient”, while the £500 grant “would make all the difference in making rent and mortgage payments,” he said.
The government faces growing calls to make support for self-isolation more generous. The Trades Union Congress, the national union umbrella body, said last week that its polling showed a fifth of workers who had been forced to self-isolate but were unable to work at home had received no sick pay or wages at all. Two-fifths of workers said they would need to go into debt or arrears on bills if their income dropped to the level of statutory sick pay.
Research published this week by University College London showed that more than one in 10 people are not self-isolating at all when they develop coronavirus symptoms — and the proportion is much higher among those earning less than £30,000 a year than among those on higher incomes.
The Local Government Association said the main reason councils were rejecting claims for support was because people did not meet eligibility criteria, even though many were on low pay and faced a loss of income that would cause them real hardship.
Councils were using discretionary funding to support people who did not meet the strict criteria, but in some areas — especially those with high levels of Covid-19 cases — demand for discretionary support had outrun the funding available, the LGA said.
The Department of Health and Social Care said that the test and trace support payment was a “targeted scheme” designed to help people on low incomes who could not work from home. The government was covering all local authorities’ costs for administering the scheme, with £50m made available already and a further £20m to come, to ensure that local authorities could make payments to people on low incomes who needed to self-isolate.
“We are working closely with the 314 local authorities to collate information and data on how the scheme is progressing,” the department said.
