Anneliese Dodds – 2020 Comments on Payments to Those Self-Isolating

The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 27 August 2020.

Effective local lockdowns depend on people self-isolating when they’re supposed to. Labour has been warning for months that the Government needs to make sure that people can afford to do the right thing, but once again Ministers have taken far too long to realise there’s a problem.

Just last week the Chancellor suggested there was no need to change the system for people who have to self-isolate. Now the Health Secretary – who confessed that Statutory Sick Pay in the UK isn’t enough to live on – thinks the solution is to offer people who aren’t currently eligible the same limited level of support.

It’s concerning that this will only apply to a limited number of areas with high rates of Covid-19. The instruction to self-isolate applies to everyone in the country, so everyone should get the support they need to self-isolate.