Many cannot afford to isolate for a fortnight

SO, imagine you are working 38 hours a week on the minimum wage, so earning around £330 a week. You are contacted by track and trace and told you need to isolate for two weeks minimum (it could be longer if someone in your household later tests positive).

Okay, so how do I live and feed my family, pay bills etc? You can have £95.85 a week statutory sick pay. But I feel fine, not ill in any way! Sorry, it’s your moral duty.

It is plain that people living and working in an impoverished area cannot afford a moral duty, they will continue to go to work, not because they don’t want to isolate, but because they can’t afford to.

If you work for a good company, in a relatively high paid job, or are even more fortunate you work in the public sector, it won’t be a problem to take an enforced paid two-week break.

If the government doesn’t face this unfortunate truth, cases will continue and will clearly identify places of poverty. Why can people not receive 80 per cent of their pay when told to isolate by track and trace, as people on furlough have?

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