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Thread on how to encourage people with Covid to self-isolate
Downing Street has rejected the idea, supported by Matt Hancock, of automatic ÂŁ500 payments to anyone with a positive test.
Should it have?
And if not this, then what policy, is the right one...1/
Downing Street has rejected the idea, supported by Matt Hancock, of automatic ÂŁ500 payments to anyone with a positive test.
Should it have?
And if not this, then what policy, is the right one...1/
First, can we be confident that financial constraints are responsible for non-adherence to rules and thereby the spread of the epidemic?
Not 100% but there’s pretty good circumstantial evidence...2/
Not 100% but there’s pretty good circumstantial evidence...2/
A large-scale study by researchers at @KingsCollegeLon in September 2020 found low adherence to isolation requirements (just 18 per cent reported fully self-isolating) was associated with financial hardship...3/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.20191957v1.full.pdf
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.20191957v1.full.pdf
And it’s a reality that our Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) regime is among the least generous in the world, at just £95.85 a week, only a fifth of average earnings...4/
Moreover, SSP is extremely patchy - only available to those who earn an average of £120 per week and to those who are formally employed, leaving out millions of low paid and self-employed people – the latter constituting 14% of the workforce...5/
Recognising this SSP problem, the Government has made special Test and Trace Support Payments worth ÂŁ500 available since September.
But they are only available to people on benefits and who cannot work from home...6/ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme-claiming-financial-support/claiming-financial-support-under-the-test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme
But they are only available to people on benefits and who cannot work from home...6/ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme-claiming-financial-support/claiming-financial-support-under-the-test-and-trace-support-payment-scheme
Councils have been given pots of money to distribute to those ineligible for the ÂŁ500 payments on a case-by-case basis.
But a majority of applicants for these discretionary grants have been turned down, as @Newsnight has been highlighting...7/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55727196
But a majority of applicants for these discretionary grants have been turned down, as @Newsnight has been highlighting...7/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55727196
Why?
Essentially because councils haven't been given enough money by the Treasury.
The amount of cash local authorities got to distribute did not depend on the number of infections in their area but was just based on the typical formula for giving out money...8/
Essentially because councils haven't been given enough money by the Treasury.
The amount of cash local authorities got to distribute did not depend on the number of infections in their area but was just based on the typical formula for giving out money...8/
It’s at least highly plausible – if not likely - that a lack of state financial support is discouraging self-isolation.
So - if not blanket £500 payments to support all people required to self-isolate - what’s *is* the solution?...9/
So - if not blanket £500 payments to support all people required to self-isolate - what’s *is* the solution?...9/
The @resolutionfoundation suggests allowing employers to furlough self-isolating workers, so they’d be on 80% of pay...10/
https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2020/12/Time-out.pdf
https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2020/12/Time-out.pdf
But this wouldn’t reach self-employed.
And it would rely on employers to do the right thing by workers.
This @theRSAorg survey work suggests that might be problematic, particularly at the low-paid end of the labour market...11/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/16/staff-pressured-back-to-work-breach-of-uk-covid-rules
And it would rely on employers to do the right thing by workers.
This @theRSAorg survey work suggests that might be problematic, particularly at the low-paid end of the labour market...11/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/16/staff-pressured-back-to-work-breach-of-uk-covid-rules
The @The_TUC wants Statutory Sick Pay made much more generous and widely available.
But, again, the SSP system currently works through employers.
It could be entirely re-made but trouble is that we need to get money to people without delay...12/ https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/why-we-need-increase-statutory-sick-pay
But, again, the SSP system currently works through employers.
It could be entirely re-made but trouble is that we need to get money to people without delay...12/ https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/why-we-need-increase-statutory-sick-pay
For me, the quickest and most effective way to get financial assistance out is to have a major publicity drive around those ÂŁ500 discretionary payments through local councils - but this time to make the money available to them the Treasury determined *entirely* by demand...13/
Finally, should we worry about the cost of all this?
Headlines this week screamed about “Covid cashpoints” and MPs fretted about people deliberately infecting themselves to get the money....14/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9173953/Ministers-eye-astonishing-plan-testing-positive-Covid-one-payment-500.html
Headlines this week screamed about “Covid cashpoints” and MPs fretted about people deliberately infecting themselves to get the money....14/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9173953/Ministers-eye-astonishing-plan-testing-positive-Covid-one-payment-500.html
Not really.
As @jdportes and @danielhowdon argue, given the massive economic and fiscal cost of extended lockdowns – refusing to fund schemes that help control the epidemic and curtail restrictions is “the very definition of a false economy.”...15/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/sick-pay-statutory-coronavirus-test-trace-isolate-economy-b1637873.html
As @jdportes and @danielhowdon argue, given the massive economic and fiscal cost of extended lockdowns – refusing to fund schemes that help control the epidemic and curtail restrictions is “the very definition of a false economy.”...15/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/sick-pay-statutory-coronavirus-test-trace-isolate-economy-b1637873.html
