Vale of Clwyd MP Dr James Davies has welcomed news that people in Wales who are asked to self-isolate via the NHS Covid-19 app will now be eligible to apply for the £500 self-isolation support payment, but is concerned that claimants can not obtain the money digitally as is the case in England.
Since December 10th2020, workers on benefits or on a low income in England instructed to self-isolate by the NHS Covid-19 app have been eligible to claim a £500 Test and Trace Support Payment.
Before that time people were only offered the payment if they were told to stay at home verbally by Test and Trace staff.
Such a system was introduced in Wales today (February 2nd), but whilst James is pleased it is at last available here, he is concerned that the Welsh Government does not yet have a "digital solution" to allow people to apply for the scheme if alerted to isolate by the app.
This means that a temporary "workaround" has been created, in which people should apply for the payment by contacting their local authority.
He said:
“Whilst people contacted through the app in England have been able to apply for the payment since early December, here in Wales people have only been able to benefit from the scheme from today, almost two months later.
“It is great that the scheme is at last up and running here, but it is disappointing that a digital solution to claiming the payment in Wales has not yet been sorted. For those in England the app links through to a Government Gateway page for payment, but claimants in Wales will have toshow evidence the app has asked them to isolate and also provide evidence of low income.
“The people of Wales deserve to have the same efficiently run schemes as those in England and I have raised the matter with the Wales Office. If it can be done digitally in one part of the UK, using HMRC data, there should be no reason why it cannot be easily replicated for another.”
James is also concerned that the payments in Wales will not be backdated.
Since early on in the pandemic, people living in Wales and England have been urged to download the NHS Covid-19 contact-tracing app, which instructs users to self-isolate if it detects they were exposed to the virus. This is important in our fight to reduce community infection levels.
