Councils running out of cash to support people forced to self-isolate
People forced to self-isolate after coming into contact with coronavirus are being refused £500 support grants because local authorities are running out of money, England’s council chiefs have said.
Councils were given £15m by the government in September to hand out £500 Test and Trace support payments to low-income individuals required to self-isolate and unable to work from home.
The cash grants were unveiled by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he introduced hefty fines for those who break quarantine rules, saying the money would make them “financially able” to obey restrictions.
But councils have warned that the fund is about to run out, stoking fears that people will start breaking isolation rules to pay the bills.
A third of local councils surveyed by the District Councils’ Network (DCN) expect this money to run out before Christmas, while a further 16 per cent say it will not last beyond January.
Almost five per cent said they had already run out of funding and were now turning people away, despite the government stating that the money would last until 31 January.
“District councils have been on the frontline fighting this virus since day one, and supporting residents and businesses throughout,” said Giles Archibald, lead member of the DCN.
“However we have concerns that the money we have to provide payments to those on low-incomes needing to self-isolate is about to run out. We are concerned that if the money runs out, infectious people will be tempted to go to work because it is the only way of paying the bills and meeting household costs.”
A separate report from The Resolution Foundation think tank found that just one in eight workers were entitled to the £500 grant in the first place.
It noted that statutory sick pay in the UK of £96 a week was the lowest of any of the world’s developed countries — covering less than a quarter of average earnings.
The government has so far handed England’s beleaguered NHS Test and Trace system more than £22bn to help tackle coronavirus across the country.
For the first time in months, NHS Test and Trace last week boosted the number of coronavirus contacts traced over the 70 per cent mark, after chief executive Baroness Dido Harding faced a grilling over the app’s performance.
It marked a significant improvement on the 60 per cent success rate seen in recent weeks, which in the last week of November alone meant Test and Trace failed to reach almost 138,000 Covid contacts.
Harding’s Test and Trace has been beleaguered with hiccups since its inception six months ago. A spreadsheet error last month meant almost 16,000 positive cases were missed and added to the nation’s coronavirus tally weeks later.
Documents leaked to Sky News earlier this month unveiled plans from Test and Trace bosses to “rebuild public trust” among local councils, after the app repeatedly failed to meet targets.