Self-Isolation Support Grant: equality impact assessment

Age: Children and Young People

Children and young people can be affected by staying at home, and therefore the provisions of this grant, in two ways. Firstly, the children and young people may themselves require to stay at home if they test positive (children and young people under the age of 18 were exempted from the requirement to self-isolate, where they had been identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive and had returned a negative PCR test).

Children and young people may be affected by others in their household having to stay at home, parents or carers in particular. If those others staying at home lose income as a result, that could impact on the children and young people’s wellbeing and welfare, particularly in low income households.

In lower income households in particular, financial losses could dis-incentivise compliance with advice to stay at home. Many working parents do not have the backup of contractual employment arrangements that allow them to be paid while looking after isolating children. The children and young people, or those in their households, may be under pressure to continue working despite being advised to stay at home, which risks the further spread of the virus and impacting on the health of those in the household, potentially magnifying the losses.

In the third report of Public Health Scotland’s Covid-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey, it was found that, in 3 out of 10 households, the status of the main household earner had changed as a result of economic changes post-lockdown, and 4 out of 10 households had seen their income reduce. This highlights the wider socio-economic impact that children face, as a result of the impact of staying at home on their parents and wider concerns on the fall-out of weaker economic activity.

The wider impacts of this can be significant on children and young people, either on their own employment if they are older teens or through the impact on their parents. For the former group, it can lead to significant reduced income and impact precarious employment when they are starting out in the workplace. For the latter group, it can have significant impacts on the household – either through dis-incentivising compliance and the attendant health consequences or through wider impacts of a drop of income on the wellbeing of parents, carers or children. For this reason, ensuring that the SISG could continue for lower income parenting groups has always been a priority.

In developing this fund, the Scottish Government is mindful of the three needs of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). The Scottish Government has sought to address the impacts above – SISG is tailored financial support for anyone advised to stay at home who earns the equivalent of the real living wage or less. Please see the PSED section later on in this document. By ensuring this support remains towards those on low incomes, this policy has supported children and young people in low income households (or on low incomes) who may be impacted.

In 2017-20, 28% of adults aged 16-24 were in relative poverty after housing costs (140,000 adults each year), compared to 15% of adults aged 65 and older (150,000 adults). The age groups in between all had similar poverty rates between 17% and 19%.

From figures provided by local authorities, from March 2021 to August 2022, 31% of SISG applicants were aged 16-24. The percentage of applications in the 16 to 24 category peaked when the infection rate was higher. Data does not indicate any change in the proportion of applicants in that age category since implementation of the May 2022 change.

From March 2021 to August 2022, a total of 12,318 awards (15.4%) were made to parents of children asked to self-isolate out of a total of 80,114 awards for which this information was available.

In the last 15 years, the youngest adults (16-24 year olds) have been consistently more likely to be in relative poverty compared to older adults^[9].