Test and Trace Support Payment: Immigrants

(asked on 7th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for the effectiveness of his payment scheme for people in the highest covid-19 risk areas to self-isolate of the ineligibility to those payments of people with no recourse to public funds.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 25th November 2020

The Test and Trace Support Payment of £500 was introduced on 28 September, to support people on low incomes who are unable to work from home if they are told to self-isolate by National Health Service Test and Trace and will lose income as a result.

The standard eligibility criteria include receipt of Universal Credit, Working Tax Credit, income-based Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit and/or Pension Credit.

Local authorities can make a £500 discretionary payment to those who are not in receipt of any of the above benefits but meet the other eligibility criteria and will face financial hardship as a result of having to self-isolate. Depending on their individual circumstances, people who have no recourse to public funds may be eligible for a discretionary payment.

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