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NHS Test And Trace Chief Admits Workers Fear ‘Financial’ Hit If They Self-Isolate

Baroness Dido Harding during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus.
Baroness Dido Harding during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus.

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Boris Johnson is facing fresh calls to support the wages of workers asked to self-isolate with Covid after the head of NHS Test and Trace admitted the public have real “financial” worries about taking part in the system.

Tory peer Dido Harding, who runs the service, revealed to the House of Lords that early surveys had shown that people had reported money worries - as well as practical and emotional difficulties - when asked to comply with the home quarantine request.

Labour and the Lib Dems seized on her words to press for extra wage support such as a rise in Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) which is currently around £94 a week, a level that health secretary Matt Hancock has admitted he could not live on.

The TUC has also pointed out that the prime minister has promised that no one should be “penalised for doing the right thing”, but many workers simply can’t afford to stay at home for a fortnight.

Two million people don’t earn the required £118 a week needed to qualify for statutory sick pay.

NHS Test and Trace requires those who test positive for covid to self-isolate for a week and any of their “close contacts” - defined as being within two metres for more than 15 minutes - to stay indoors for a fortnight.

But the system is currently failing to reach a quarter of people who test positive for Covid-19, and one in five of those asked to self-isolate then fail to do so.

As she gave evidence to the Lords Science and Technology Committee, Harding was asked by Labour’s Lord Hollick what extra support would improve the public’s “adherence” to the test and trace system.

Harding replied: “The early evidence from surveys that we have been doing of people who’ve been asked to isolate shows that people do as you say find it hard. The main reasons why they find it hard tends to be either financial, practical or emotional.”

She went on...

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