This £500 isolation payment

[BecomeStronger]

I'm looking at the "how to claim" guidance and it seems if you're contacted by the app (as DS1 has been) but not by a contact tracer you're not entitled to claim. It's still compulsory to isolate though, so how does that make any sense? Are they effectively saying that if you really need to isolate you'd get a call? DS will comply but it seems most unreasonable that this help is there but not for everyone who will lose pay though following the instructions.

"If the NHS COVID-19 app notifies you to self-isolate because you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, but you have not been contacted by NHS Test and Trace by phone, email, letter or text message, you cannot currently apply for the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme"

It’s not law to self isolate if you’re told to by the app. That’s why.

It’s ridiculous though.

It's not?

No. Only if you’ve had a positive test or told to by a contact tracer. When this was set out in law, the app wasn’t good enough. The app telling you to self isolate is just guidance/advice.

www.gov.uk/government/news/new-legal-duty-to-self-isolate-comes-into-force-today

I didn’t realise this as most people can’t claim anyway but this is another ‘look how kind and helpful we are’ but not really from the government

Where does it say it's not compulsory, DS has been "notified by Test and Trace" via the app?

He wouldn't do anything stupid anyway but he might have come out for a walk today if he didn't think he was legally confined to barracks.

Where does it say it's not compulsory, DS has been "notified by Test and Trace" via the app?

It doesn’t. They haven’t emphasised that because they want people to follow the guidance as if it were law. People should isolate but the government should have been more open about this.

When they saw “notified by test and trace”, that means a person, not the app.

@PurpleDaisies

Where does it say it's not compulsory, DS has been "notified by Test and Trace" via the app?

It doesn’t. They haven’t emphasised that because they want people to follow the guidance as if it were law. People should isolate but the government should have been more open about this.

When they saw “notified by test and trace”, that means a person, not the app.

Part of the app privacy policy says the following:

In appropriate cases the app will automatically send a notification recommending self-isolation. These notifications are private to the app user, so no one else will know that you have been advised to self-isolate, unless you choose to tell them.

The words "recommending" and "advised" to me would mean not compulsory. Also you cannot be identified through the app, so nobody would know that you have been notified, unless you actually tell them.

Thanks @PhilCornwall1, I hadn’t spotted that, only seen what was said in the media about the app, self isolation and the law.

And re reading my post, I was answering “where does it say it is compulsory to isolate”, so the “it doesn’t” I wrote should be ignored! Sorry, I haven’t had coffee yet.

My dd got a message yesterday saying that she had been in contact with someone on the 14/15 Nov. She had not been out of the house since three days before due to school sending her class home and she didn't go out over the weekend.