MINISTERS are expected to axe the £500 self isolation bung to the poor workers when they declare Covid freedom day.
Boris Johnson is thrashing out the final details of his plan to make England the first Western country to ditch all legal coronavirus curbs.
The legal requirement to self isolate for five days if you have Covid is being ditched by February 24.
A Whitehall insider said the £500 test and trace support payment is expected to be axed alongside this.
The source said: “It would be abnormal to keep it if we are saying you need to live with Covid like any other illness.
“Because then people can say – why don’t I get the payment for flu, or whatever or another illness.”
He is expected to announce moves to dump the freebie when he reveals his landmark ‘learn to live with Covid’ plan on Monday.
Currently, the payment is offered to Brits on low incomes who have to self isolate and are left out of pocket as a result.
This includes self employed workers who cannot work from home, and will not have their wages covered while off sick.
The plans are still being finalised and must be signed off by the Cabinet on Monday.
Downing Street is alarmed at the many billions still being pumped into the gigantic infrastructure which has sprung up to cope with the pandemic.
HOAR revealed earlier this week that free PCR and lateral flow tests will also be massively scaled back.
Although they are expected to still be available for the vulnerable and key workers for some time to come.
Mr Johnson will make history next week by sketching out how England will be the first major country to transition from pandemic to endemic.
One insider said that spending “billions and billions on tests” when the virus is endemic is “hard to justify”.
