U-turn as ‘peverse’ worker pay issue now solved by Welsh Government after previously ruling it out for Wrexham

Welsh Government consistently pointed to UK Government to resolve a ‘perverse’ situation during the local Rowan Foods outbreak, however have now said as England have brought in a scheme Wales needs to match it regardless of funding source.

On Tuesday night the First Minister announced a new £500 payment to support people on low incomes who are asked to self-isolate if they have coronavirus. A similar scheme had been announced in England earlier in the week.

Yesterday we asked the First Minister if that new payment had been funded by a consequential, where sometimes spending by UK Government in England triggers a payment to Wales.

The First Minister explained, “We were assured by Michael Gove, the head of the Cabinet Office on Saturday that there would be a consequential for us, we are yet to find out how much it will be.”

“But, I just felt that it was so important to eliminate that perverse incentive, that pressure people in low income occupations have felt to go to work when they were feeling unwell because they couldn’t afford not to that we had to do something to prevent that from happening.”

“So, we are promised the consequential but we will go ahead, we will if absolutely necessary, we will find the money ourselves to make this happen because it is such an important part of our public health defence.”

On Friday the 26th of June, and at several subsequent lunchtime Welsh Government briefings and interviews, we pointed to situations connected to the Rowan Foods related outbreak where workers concerns over pay and job security clashed with public health objectives of self isolation and testing.

We consistently asked if there were any plans for direct economic support in such situations so finance is taken out of public health questions, and was told the issue was one for UK Government to fix. The situation was branded ‘perverse’ back then, and on July 3rd when we asked if it was time the First Minister’s government led by example on the finance v public health question and step in, and was told it was basically not a decision he was willing to take as he was unwilling to ‘to divert that money to pay for things that are the responsibility of the UK Government’, and ‘it needs a UK solution and the UK Government has solutions that they could implement.’

Today we pointed to the “perverse choice” in Wrexham back in June and July, and that the First Minister effectively passed the buck to UK Government on the issue. We noted that the new £500 announcement is in effect currently not funded by UK Government, and will now be funded by Welsh Government if ‘absolutely necessary’.

We asked why such a choice is being made now, but could not be made for workers in Wrexham earlier in the pandemic.

The First Minister replied, “Well the Welsh Government has no responsibilities for income maintenance, it is absolutely reserved responsibility one that should be discharged by the United Kingdom. And we made the case powerfully then I wrote to the Prime Minister, myself many weeks ago in the Rowan Foods context offering two different solutions to this problem.

“Neither of those has been taken up by the UK Government. They have now moved to a local authority administered scheme in England. I felt it was very important that we match that here in Wales. I hope that what Michael Gove said to me and to the First Minister of Scotland and Northern Ireland on Saturday is delivered in practice and the consequential will come to us, but I just felt we had reached a point where we couldn’t have workers in Wales disadvantaged when a scheme was being put in place across our border and that’s why we’ve made the decision at this point.”

In England local councils are expected to administer the payments, something that was seen earlier in the year in Wales with business rates grants being distributed very quickly locally but via tremendous effort from the council’s finance department. We asked if the same model was to be brought in for Wales, would council’s get additional resources to deliver the service.

The First Minister indicated the system could be different in Wales, “When working through how it will be administered, we have a choice available to us in Wales that isn’t available in England. In England, they abandoned the Social Fund nearly a decade ago, here we have kept the Discretionary Assistance Fund in being. Back in February when people were affected by the flooding we were providing 500 pounds 1000 pounds to assist people with that. The applications will be to the Discretionary Assistance Fund to be administered nationally rather than locally, we will continue to explore whether that is a swifter and less complicated way of providing the 500 pounds here in Wales.”

You can view the full briefing and Q&A from yesterday lunchtime on the below video link:

Yn fyw nawr gyda’r Prif Weinidog Mark Drakeford | Live now with First Minister Mark Drakeford https://t.co/331NbIbsyP

— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) September 23, 2020

Top image: The army were called in to help with an outbreak associated with the Rowan Foods factory earlier this year.