Labour Party calls on government to expand eligibility for Test and Trace Support Payment

Shadow Chancellor also urges an urgent assessment of financial barriers to self-isolation including the levels of statutory sick pay

Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds has called on the government to expand the eligibility criteria for the Test and Trace Support Payment (TTSP).

In a letter to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Ms Dodds highlights that the eligibility criteria for the £500 TTSP - which is aimed at people who are eligible for benefits, need to self-isolate, cannot work from home and have lost income as a result - exclude many people on low incomes as a result of which only 11 per cent of people asked to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace have done so.

People who have struggled to claim the payment, Ms Dodds says, include - 

• low-paid workers who are not in receipt of specific means-tested benefits;
• those told to self-isolate by the NHS COVID-19 app;
• those whose benefits are paid to their partner;
• people with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF); and
• parents and carers whose child is self-isolating.

NB - on 2 November 2020, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock conceded that the button on the app needed to access the TTSP was missing, but was 'in development'.

Urging the government to improve its communications strategy so that people know what support is available when they need to self-isolate, Ms Dodds also asks that - 

• every eligible user of the NHS COVID-19 app is given access to the TTSP;
• the NRPF rule is suspended for the scheme; and 
• an urgent assessment of the financial barriers to self-isolation is carried out, including the level of statutory sick pay.

For more information, see Ms Dodds' letter to the Chancellor.