Self-Isolation Support Grant: equality impact assessment

Older People

Older people who are in work in low-income jobs face losses if advised to stay at home, but no more so than any other age group. We additionally have a requirement for carers of older people who are unable to stay at home unassisted. With the prevalence of the virus higher in older people, those who are working are at a disadvantage with a higher risk of requiring to self-isolate. The SISG was designed to reflect the needs of these groups and mitigate financial loss.

In most years, the poverty rate after housing costs for single female pensioners had been higher than that for single male pensioners, with this gap only recently widening and closing again.

Some of the difference in pensioner poverty between sexes may be due to different age profiles. For example, in 2017-20, 40% of female single pensioners were aged 80 or older compared with 30% of male single pensioners. Older pensioners may have different sources of income which may result in them having lower incomes.

^[10]Among single pensioners, a slightly higher proportion of women than men were in poverty in 2016-19 (18% vs 15%). This may partly be due to their different age profiles.

^[11]In 2017-20, 20% of single female pensioners (50,000 women each year) and 17% of single male pensioners were in relative poverty after housing costs. Note that there were too few single male pensioners in poverty in the sample to produce a robust estimate of their population.

Impact of changes brought in from 1 May 2022

When the SISG was established, it was designed to reflect the needs of older people and to help mitigate any financial loss as a result of having to self-isolate. We made no changes to financial eligibility for the grant, therefore older people retained the ability to apply for the grant. There is currently no data available to suggest older people have been negatively impacted by the changes brought in from 1 May 2022.