Is the Covid £500 self-isolation payment idea really as ‘mad’ as has been suggested?

While there are obvious problems, it makes more sense if it is targeted and enforced, writes John Rentoul

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is currently isolating: should he be entitled to £500? (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

I assumed that ministers would be quick to contradict the suggestion in a leaked Department of Health paper that Matt Hancock’s “preferred position” is that everyone testing positive for coronavirus in England should receive a £500 payment to help them self-isolate. 

But George Eustice, the environment secretary, said on Sky News this morning: “No decisions have been made on this. But this is a dynamic, fast-moving situation with the pandemic. We are always keeping multiple policies under review.”

Perhaps that was just the safest thing to say, because ministers are discussing options for trying to get more people to isolate, but it doesn’t deal with the obvious flaw in the plan. If the government is going to hand out that kind of cash to people who test positive, it gives an incentive to catch the virus. There were reports early on in the pandemic of young people in the US holding coronavirus parties, like chickenpox parties for children, in the belief either that the virus was a hoax or that it was worth getting it over with and acquiring immunity.