There is a reason why, once again, Britain is the ‘sick man of Europe’. Far from leading the world out of the coronavirus pandemic, this government’s stunning levels of incompetence has ensured that the UK trails behind other European countries on almost every measure designed to tackle the spread of the virus.
Nine months after the coronavirus appeared on these shores – time enough for Covid-19 to claim almost 60,000 lives – the government has belatedly, and grudgingly, introduced a payment to deter low-paid employees from going into work once they have tested positive for the virus. They will receive £500 for a 10-day period of quarantine but face a fine of up to £10,000 if they refuse to self-isolate.
The Test and Trace Support Payments will be paid on top of any statutory sick pay (paid at £95.85 a week) and/or state benefits that are paid to top up their wages. Although these payments are far more generous than those offered to low-paid workers in a trial in Blackburn with Darwen, Pendle and Oldham – £182 for a 14-day period of quarantine – they will be subject to income tax.
What’s more, they will only be paid to workers who receive a state benefit. There are over 5.1 million low-paid workers in the UK, according to the Living Wage Foundation. Just under 4m of them will qualify for this £500 payment. What about the other 1.1m workers?
A quick glance at other countries signals the way forward. In an acknowledgement that workers will only comply with quarantine rules if they are financially supported to do so, Denmark pays all employees their full wages while they are off work with the virus. In Germany, workers receive their full salaries when they test positive.
As we head into winter without a vaccine, it’s imperative that the government ditch the so-called ‘British exceptionalism’: the belief that Britain is inherently different from, and superior to, other countries and, as such, has nothing to learn from them.
The government needs to start looking to New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan – which have adopted far more strenuous approaches – and fast, for the inevitable solutions that it simply refuses to countenance. Until it does, we should brace ourselves for yet more loss
