Workers who test positive with Covid may be offered £500 to stay home.

If this is passed the money will be given irregardless of a persons income or whether they work from home or not.
Is this a good idea or a badly thought out one, little more than a bribe, which many people will abuse.

"Everyone testing positive for coronavirus could be paid £500 by the government to self-isolate, under plans reportedly being considered by ministers.

The scheme, which would cost up to £450m a week, aims to encourage more people to take a test and to persuade those who test positive to stay at home, regardless of their financial situation.

The proposal, which is likely to alarm the Treasury ahead of Rishi Sunak’s budget, is said to be the “preferred position” in detailed policy paper at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and leaked to The Guardian.

Polling, the paper added, suggests many self-employed workers fear they will lose out financially if they comply with advice to self-isolate. It also indicated that only 17 per cent of people with symptoms are coming forward for testing




https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/coronavirus-government-e2-80-98could-pay-c2-a3500-to-everyone-who-tests-positive-e2-80-99-to-encourage-self-isolation/ar-BB1cZfKE

Syl wrote:Polling, the paper added, suggests many self-employed workers fear they will lose out financially if they comply with advice to self-isolate.

As opposed to what...going about, spreading the disease?

Will they do better financially if they are dead? Think of the savings...

Original Quill wrote:

Syl wrote:Polling, the paper added, suggests many self-employed workers fear they will lose out financially if they comply with advice to self-isolate.

As opposed to what...going about, spreading the disease?

Will they do better financially if they are dead?  Think of the savings...  

You're thinking like an old man. Self employed 30 year olds not making much money right now might go ahead and roll the dice.

You or I won't risk anything for 500 bucks, but others will.

Think of the risk of disease prostitutes take.

The program is aimed at preventing spread, not particularly acquiring the disease.

It would have to be a pretty active prostitute to infect as many people as a simple walk in the park could infect with covid-19.

I can see how someone who needs every pay packet to put food on the table would ignore the likelihood that they may be infected in order to keep on working.
Self employed people who  are not receiving regular top ups from the government,  all the savings used up, may feel they have no choice.

Obviously they are infecting others, but they make that choice through desperation..

500 quid could cost up to 450 million a week...???


That's 900,000 people a week...

Maybe they are using the same calculator you used when you were working out infection/death/ hospital rates in other threads.

Original Quill wrote:The program is aimed at preventing spread, not particularly acquiring the disease.

It would have to be a pretty active prostitute to infect as many people as a simple walk in the park could infect with covid-19.

I was talking about why someone might abuse the program.

But the op says the 500£ would only be for those with positive tests... And we know the numbers for that quite clearly...


However... It also says this...


"Polling... suggested... only 17 per cent of people with symptoms are coming forward for testing."


And that Reuters article from back in August 2020 said that 86% of people who did test positive during lockdown were asymptomatic...


Which all indicates in the strongest possible terms that the numbers of actual infected people so far is a great many times the numbers shown for confirmed tested cases!


I personally think there are many in positions of power who are thinking up loads of new ways to set up very lucrative business schemes for themselves under the guise of helping with this covid situation...


It seems like over the last 12 months there has been a rush to hand out taxpayers money left, right and centre to anyone and everyone for whatever idea that they have put forward, for any eyewatering sums of cash, under the guise of helping with covid... And it seems that none of it has been properly scrutinised or is properly accountable...

Seems like it won't be going ahead now anyway, maybe just as well, many would have abused the scheme.

In the restaurant where I work some customers  refused to do track and trace because if they received a notification that they had been in contact with someone who tested positive they’d have to self-isolate and they didn’t want to risk not being paid.

So yes, many self-employed people will test positive and still go to work. They feel they have no choice. Others, like me, get furloughed so it’s not too bad.

eddie wrote:In the restaurant where I work some customers  refused to do track and trace because if they received a notification that they had been in contact with someone who tested positive they’d have to self-isolate and they didn’t want to risk not being paid.

So yes, many self-employed people will test positive and still go to work. They feel they have no choice. Others, like me, get furloughed so it’s not too bad.

I bet loads of people didn't do track  and trace for that reason.