Weekly Update – Friday 30 July 2021

Government must take action on “Pingdemic”

One consequence of the Government’s decision to let Covid-19 rip is that a huge number of people are being ‘pinged’ by the NHS app and being told to self-isolate. So many people have had to take time off work that there are serious issues with some supply chains and in London, part of the tube network had to close last week.

This is not a problem with the app, in fact, the app is doing exactly what it was meant to do. This is a consequence of the high transmission rate and the Government being unprepared yet again for the consequences of its decisions. While the Government was very quick to make sure that the Prime Minister and other ministers could easily exempt themselves from self-isolation they did not treat with the same urgency NHS workers and other vital workers. They have been far too slow in carving out necessary exceptions to the rule and now unbelievably have decided to wait weeks until they allow people who have been double jabbed to avoid self-isolation.

That is wrong and suggests the Government has vastly underestimated the consequences of the so-called ‘pingdemic’. There is no reason to continue forcing fully vaccinated people to self-isolate unnecessarily for weeks rather than bring the changes forward. Hopefully, we soon see another U-Turn from the PM, and action is taken urgently.

We must avoid another Windrush

This week, I’ve written to the Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, Therese Coffey MP, to raise my concerns about the thousands and thousands of EU Citizens who could see their benefits stop if they’ve not yet been granted Settled Status.

The Home Office and DWP have issued guidance stating that while EU Citizens without Settled Status will no longer be entitled to benefits, they will not immediately stop payments. However, the Government have failed to offer the clarity that is needed on this issue. It isn’t clear when and how the Government plans to stop payments to those affected and it doesn’t appear that the Government have offered any assistance to the often very vulnerable individuals who are claiming disability benefits such as ESA or PIP.

I’m concerned that unless more proactive action is taken quickly then we may see another Windrush type scandal with people who call this country their home losing their income, jobs, and homes. The Government needs to act now to prevent that.

Teachers deserve a pay rise

The Government’s confirmation of its intention to freeze schoolteacher pay is wrong and yet another unjustified attack on public sector workers. As with other key workers, teachers have played an essential role in getting this country through the pandemic. Under incredibly challenging conditions they kept working, putting pupils first and adapting at short notice to ever-changing restrictions and rules.

The response to that incredible work from this Government has been to confirm they intend to cut their pay in real terms, once inflation is taken into account. Clearly, even in these extraordinary times, the Conservatives cannot let go of their ideological opposition to public sector workers.

For more than a decade now teachers’ pay has been cut drastically in real terms while equally extreme cuts to school budgets have left them with more work to do for less pay. It is little surprise that Teachers are quitting the profession at an alarming rate.

School teachers and all public sector workers deserve far better than they get from this Government. It’s time we stopped running down our public services and instead invested in public sector workers.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.

Kind regards,

Kate Osamor MP