Job Retention scheme should be used to allow employers to pay 80 per cent of wages to workers who are self-isolating due to COVID-19

Resolution Foundation also argues that grants should be paid to self-employed workers to cover periods of self-isolation

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) should be used to allow employers to pay 80 per cent of wages to workers who are self-isolating due to COVID-19, the Resolution Foundation has suggested.

In Time out: Reforming Statutory Sick Pay to support the Covid-19 recovery phase, the Foundation highlights that, even prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the UK had one of the least generous schemes for statutory sick pay (SSP) - as measured by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The eligibility criteria - which excludes 2 million of the lowest-paid - and low replacement rates mean many people struggle while on sick pay, and the Resolution Foundation points out that this has become a significant problem for individuals’ livelihoods when they have to self-isolate or fall ill as a result of COVID-19.

Arguing that, in effect, people are having to fund their self-isolation from their own resources - which many can ill-afford to do - the Resolution Foundation puts forward a proposal to support all workers affected by COVID-19 - 

• allow employers to use the CJRS for all workers (including those who earn less than £120 per week) who are ill with coronavirus or need to self-isolate, allowing them to receive 80 per cent of their previous earnings - this would mean that the median worker is entitled to £330 a week from the CJRS rather than £96 in SSP;
• extend the CJRS beyond the end of March 2021 in cases of self-isolation;
• amend the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) to include a system of grants for self-employed workers who have to self-isolate covering 10 or 14-day periods of self-isolation, paid at 80 per cent of previous earnings - with the grants extended beyond the end of March 2021; 
• Track and Trace support payments - which would still be needed for those who do not qualify under either the CJRS or SEISS - should be extended beyond 31 January 2021 and entitlements granted to those who cannot work because their children cannot attend school or are notified to self-isolate via the NHS COVID app; and
• review the formula for paying local authorities discretionary payments so that it relates directly to local infection rates.

NB - looking to the future, the Resolution Foundation says- 

'Beyond the pandemic, we need to rethink this important part of the welfare state safety net, and ask questions about its generosity, recognising that its existence benefits us all.'

For more information, see Reforming Statutory Sick Pay to support the Covid-19 recovery phase from resolutionfoundation.org