SICK PAY AND CARE HOMES

Spent the last two days talking to carers about one specific issue.

I've heard it a lot in the last 2 months and it's still a problem.

It's sick pay- or a lack of it.

I've spoken to carers who say they're afraid to have tests because of it.

First of all, the reminders

Carers are some of the worst paid people in the country

They are largely on the minimum wage or something close to it

They're classed as "unskilled" (their work is anything but)

Up to 50% in some parts of the country are on zero hour contracts

Most don't have any form of company sick pay and rely on SSR (£95.85 a week) if they get sick

Some are not entitled to that if they don't do enough hours

Talk to carers and they'll all tell you the same thing- they usually don't take time off. They can't afford to.

Nor, usually, are they encouraged to do so by their bosses. This has been a problem before, with, for example, norovirus. As one put it to me "we just grin and bear it"

You can see why that is a problem at the best of times. It's an enormous problem with Covid-19.

One carer told me: "Unfortunately people are going into work with symptoms and this has been recognised by our company as well...[it's]because they are not getting any kind of decent sick pay...so they are just not being tested."

Another carer told me of an incident where a carer tested positive but she came to work anyway. When she was confronted by staff, she replied she had to come to work because she couldn't afford not to.

She was sent home. But it gives an indication of how desperate situ can be.

In a recent GMB survey of 2000 carers, 12% said that if they developed covid-19 symptoms they would have to come to work because they couldn't afford to live on SSR.

That doesn't sound like many, until you realise there are 840,000 front line carers.

If even a small percentage of those carers are forced to come to work for financial reasons, imagine the avoidable transmission which might take place.

And before any of you attack the carers, they hate being put in this position.

As one carer put it to me: "I work with a girl with two children on her own and if she showed symptoms she doesn’t live near family so she would have to choose either to stay at home isolating...

..."with no pay whatsoever, not be able to pay her rent, h food for her children, have to rely on food banks or she could choose to come in, hide her symptom and carry on working so her children have got food and then risk killing somebody whose job it is for her..."

"...to look after…. It is the opposite of … it makes people who are going to work to care for the people be a risk to the people they are caring for and it makes us be the people who are putting them in danger is what none of us really go in there for."

It's not just the safety of residents at risk. I'm told of carers who should be shielding because they have conditions of their own but are going to work because they can't afford not to do so.

Lots of care companies make a lot of money. Clearly they could afford to pay proper sick pay. But remember the care sector is dominated by small providers, many of which rely on local authority residents. There is so little money to be made there and margins are tight.

A care home manager in Yorkshire told us: "most of our work is delivered by councils who don’t fund us sufficiently well enough to deliver the services. I would like to be able to pay staff their full salaries when they off ill but it just isn’t possible..."

"If I did that for those who are off shielding or self isolating now it would cost me around £9,000 for the last five weeks, that is just half pay. If it was full pay about £18,000 which would really wipe out any surplus that we have and therefore we would be running at a loss."

Local authorities are themselves suffering a funding crisis, they can't afford to pay homes any more. And private revenue is drying up. Few are likely to put their relatives in homes at the moment.

The government did extend SSR eligibility and has promised to cover the cost for employers, the SSP rebate scheme.

However, I checked with the DWP tonight- it's still not operational.

What carers really want is for govt to guarantee their earnings for when they're sick, as a stop gap until there can be wider reform in the sector.

Given the amount of money the govt is spending on furloughing at the moment and given how little carers earn, it'd be peanuts.

A DWP spokesperson said: We’ve made sick pay more generous by starting it from day one, while at the same time stepping in to refund employers with up to 250 staff the cost of up to 2 weeks sick pay. Employers can, and many do, pay more than the statutory rate... "

"...something we encourage.

“And for those workers who need further financial support they may be eligible for Universal Credit, including help with rent, may benefit from a mortgage holiday or be entitled to help with council tax bills.”

The situation in care homes is complex and this is only one element. But a govt official said the other day they want to better understand why the situation in care homes is so bad. This is part of why and is something which could be remedied quickly.

For my full report on this, do watch @BBCNewsnight tonight. BBC2, 10.45pm

Message from a care home manager. Says that he suspects every member of his staff would lie to him about symptoms if they had to, because they couldn’t afford to be off sick.

It is also not uncommon at all for carers to have second jobs, because at minimum wage that income is not enough. Clearly if someone has two jobs that’s twice the number of contacts, more likely to transmit the disease to residents. So much comes down to low pay.

My Newsnight report on how the lack of full sick pay is helping spread the virus and making the care crisis worse, can be watched here: