Low income earners set to be given £500 government grant

A part time shop assistant from Ashton has hailed the introduction of the grant as a 'lifeline' - after being told she needed to self isolate due to an upcoming health procedure, her worries about so much as paying the bills began to set in.

Carol Corey, 50, said: "The guidance on this new grant is confusing. I'm not too sure if I am eligible as I am currently on universal credit and have been told it is the council that I need to liaise with. I soon have to go through a medical procedure and have been told that I need to isolate for two weeks before hand and isolate a week after.

"During this time, I won't be getting paid from my part time job. There is no figures or information about who I can contact and I only found out through someone else that this grant is an option. Money worries are definitely on my mind because I already struggle to pay the rent with the dates that I get paid from work and universal credit.

"With me not being paid from work it will put me further in rent arrears and I will be literally living off nothing. I won't even be able to cover all my bills or essentials because I will only getting two weeks pay from work."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that people would be eligible for the payments from Monday, in a statement to the House of Commons.

He said: "Self-isolation can be tough for many people especially if you’re not in a position to work from home. I don’t want anyone having to worry about their finances while they’re doing the right thing."

However, for another single working parent from Preston, the grant is too little too late. After Julie Cornwell recently spent a week trying to book a Covid-19 test, her results came back negative.

But due to the nature of her job, which is based around a zero-hour contract, she is unable to return for another seven days and now claims she doesn't know how she will survive next month.

She said: "It is sod's law that this grant has been brought in after I've already been forced to isolate from work for two weeks. I work a zero hour contract and was already worried about my income because I had to take last week of while I waited for a home test.

"Now, even though the test came out negative, all of the shifts for next week have been taken up at work meaning it will be another week without any income. I don't know how I will cope through the next month because it is hard being a single parent on a low income. After experiencing the test, I didn't realise how hard it would be to test my 18 month old daughter but it really was mission impossible. Just think of how many false tests there will be and how many will be wasted because people won't have done them properly."

From September 28, it will become law for residents of the UK to go into a 14-day quarantine if they have been in contact with someone who tested positive through the NHS Track and Trace system.

Those who are forced to isolate and face loss of earnings and are considered to be on a 'low income' will be eligible for the new grant.

Yet the introduction of the grant was met with some speculation on social media over how it would be policed. Lesley Fitton from Preston wrote: "What about the self-employed who get no income when self isolating? Benefits don't stop but your earnings do. Why are they not eligible for this grant? Does it not also encourage some idiots to congregate with infectious people?"

Personal trainer Stella Sansom Harper commented: "As a self-employed person who supports a family of five - I have two disabled kids that my partner cares for so I'm the only wage earner - I haven't recovered from the last lockdown. Any new lockdowns worry me as does the possibility of having to isolate for two weeks because my wages have dropped dramatically during lockdown."

Local authorities will set up the support schemes and have them in place by October 12. This means that anyone who has been told to self-isolate from September 28 will receive backdated payments.

It is expected that around four million people who are in receipt of benefits in England will be eligible for this payment.

This financial support is intended to give a boost to those told to self-isolate when instructed to by NHS Test and Trace.