Parents: Coronavirus

(asked on 16th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to provide financial support to parents of school children unable to work as a result of a young child being required to self-isolate, but who have not themselves been asked to self-isolate.


Answered by
Steve Barclay Portrait
Steve Barclay
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This question was answered on 23rd November 2020

The Government has committed to an unprecedented package to support individuals through this difficult time. This includes the introduction of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, as well as the injection of an additional £9.3bn into the welfare system according to Office for Budget Responsibility estimates.

If an employee earns average weekly earnings of at least £120 per week, they will be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if they are self-isolating under Government guidance and cannot work from home. This includes parents living in the same households as children self-isolating with symptoms of Covid-19. The Government has changed the rules so that SSP is now payable from day 1, not day 4, for Covid-19 cases.

Parents of children who are self-isolating under government guidance may be eligible for “new style” Contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) if they are ineligible for SSP and unable to work from home. We have made it easier for people to claim by removing the seven-day waiting period which means people can get support from day one.

In terms of wider support, the Chancellor has recently announced that the CJRS will be extended until the end of March 2021. We have strived to ensure that the CJRS can be accessed by as many people as possible. All employers with a UK bank account and a PAYE payroll scheme that was registered on or before 30th October can claim, whilst employees are required to have been employed and on an employer’s PAYE payroll on 30th October 2020. Any employee who meets this eligibility criteria can be furloughed by their employer.

Parents on lower incomes can also benefit from the Government’s wider changes to the welfare system to support the most vulnerable. According to the latest OBR estimates, we have injected over £9.3bn of support into the wider welfare system. These changes include: a £20 per week increase to the UC standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element, and a nearly £1bn increase in support for renters through increases to the Local Housing Allowance rates for UC and Housing Benefit claimants.

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