Self-Isolation Support Grant: equality impact assessment

Three needs of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

As set out in the Executive Summary, in developing this fund the Scottish Government is mindful of the three needs of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) - eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The SISG fund supports measures that help limit the spread of coronavirus and may particularly positively affect those with underlying health conditions (including people who are more likely to experience severe ill health from contracting Covid-19 than the general population), protecting their health and helping to advance equality of opportunity.

The fund should help to mitigate any negative impacts of following advice to stay at home, and advance equality of opportunity, providing support for people who may be at risk and do not have community support available, as well as those who cannot get online. It may also have a positive effect in fostering good relations between people, as those administering the fund may have the opportunity to understand more about the difficulties faced by (disabled people, minority ethnic people etc.) people.

Actions and decisions have been made on an on-going basis to address any adverse impacts of self-isolation identified on groups with protected characteristics (Age, Sex, Race, Disability, Religion and belief, Sexual orientation, Pregnancy and maternity, Gender reassignment, Marriage or Civil partnership (employment only)).

After the grant was launched in October 2020, it quickly became apparent that there was an issue with parents/guardians of children being asked to self-isolate due to an outbreak at their school, not being eligible to apply for the SISG. This affected the protected characteristic of Age (children and young people) and Sex (Women) as women are more likely to work part-time and therefore to take time off to care for their children.

This ineligibility to apply for the fund posed a risk of already low-income families being financially penalised due to their children having to self-isolate and their parent/guardian being unable to go to work. Due to the information we were receiving from our correspondence, we understood a change needed to be made to the grant to include an extension to pay parents of self-isolating children. This involved accessing local authorities’ education data to help us fully understand the numbers in question and to justify the extension.

As a result of this work and the action we took, eligibility for the scheme was expanded on 7 December 2020 to include: 1) parents or primary carers of children required to isolate; and 2) applicants who would ordinarily have an underlying eligibility for Universal Credit (based on earnings prior to the self-isolation request period), who experience a reduction in earnings as a result of being asked to self-isolate.

There was scope, on a discretionary basis, for retrospective revisions of decisions involving those parents or primary carers of children required to isolate who had applied prior to 7 December 2020 and were refused solely on that ground and indeed LAs did receive a number of these applications.

We also brought in discretion because early on PCR tests were not easy to get, particularly for children so one of the discretionary provisions was specifically to address outbreaks in schools.

To ensure the protected characteristic of race was considered, in November 2020, the grant was also extended to help those who have no Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF). This change ensured the same rules apply to someone who is required to isolate but cannot access the funds via the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) due to their immigration status. The grant was extended further in May 2021 to include seasonal workers brought in via the Agricultural Seasonal Workers Programme which brings workers from around the world to the UK. At that point, we explicitly created new guidance and included it in the NRPF scheme.

In order to address on-going issues affecting the protected characteristics of age, sex, marriage and civil partnership and disability, eligibility for the scheme was expanded further on 16 February 2021 to include: 1) applicants who are in receipt of means-tested Council Tax Reduction; 2) applicants who earn the Real Living Wage or less or whose household income is less than Universal Credit + 25% for their circumstances; 3) carers of adults required to isolate; and 4) a widening of the application period to 28 calendar days from being told to self-isolate. Someone who had been told to self-isolate on or after 2 February 2021 (but before the extension is operational in their local authority area) would have been able to make a backdated claim for payment.

This further expansion of the eligibility criteria allowed for more claims to be made and to allow more individuals and families to access the financial support they needed to help them self-isolate without being financially penalised for doing the right thing to help protect themselves and others.

Eligibility for the scheme was then changed on 6 October 2021 to ensure that the definition of low income as less than Universal Credit + 25% for their circumstances was calculated to continue to include the £20 per week temporary coronavirus increase in the Universal Credit Standard Allowance.

When the Omicron variant became dominant late in 2021, eligibility for the scheme was changed further on 30 November 2021 to enable contacts of someone who has tested positive or has been asked to isolate as part of an exercise within the public health response to a variant of concern to be eligible if they had to isolate for the required 10-day period. Eligibility for the scheme was changed further on 11 December 2021 to enable identified household contacts of someone who has tested positive to be eligible regardless of their vaccination status if they have to isolate for the required 10-day period. These steps were taken to extend eligibility to ensure that those who were required to self-isolate had some financial support to allow them to do so.

As of 6 January 2022, eligibility for the scheme was changed further to require that individuals identified as contacts by Test and Protect (or equivalent service across the UK) who have been fully vaccinated become eligible only when they themselves test positive following public health policy’s return to the isolation requirements prior to 30 November 2021. This includes children and young people under the age of 18 years and 4 months who are treated as fully vaccinated from this date.

This mitigation reduced eligibility but was based on the scientific evidence available at that time, which showed that due to the success of the vaccination booster programme, which had been made available to a much wider section of the population, and as we learned more about the Omicron variant, we understood that the mitigations put in place in November 2021 were no longer necessary. The reduction in eligibility meant the grant fund available would be best spent on those identified as needing to self-isolate to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Although fully vaccinated (non-index cases) no longer had to self-isolate, prior to reducing eligibility, we checked to ensure those who are unvaccinated would not be unfairly discriminated against and this group remained eligible to apply for the grant.