LEADING public-health bodies are demanding that the government provides greater financial support to people on low incomes who are self-isolating to ensure that infection-control measures are effective.
Today the British Medical Association, Scottish Academy of Royal Colleges, Doctors Association UK and other public-health bodies wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson raising concerns that too many people in precarious and low-wage employment cannot afford to miss work and self-isolate with the financial support currently offered.
They warned that unless people are given more financial support, infection control will continue to be undermined.
The signatories welcomed steps made during the pandemic to remove qualifying periods for statutory sick pay (SSP) and provide £500 for eligible low-income households to self-isolate but said that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s winter spending review in November was a missed opportunity to build on these provisions.