Everyone in England who tests positive for coronavirus could be given £500 to persuade them to stay at home, according to a leaked government document.
The proposal is said to be the ‘preferred position’ of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
It said the overhaul has been prompted by Government polling indicating that only 17% of people with symptoms are coming forward for testing.
The paper, seen by the Guardian, added that just one-in-four comply with rules to self-isolate for 10 days after testing positive and 15% continue to go to work as normal.
The £500 handout scheme would cost up to £453million per week – 12 times the cost of the current system.
Among those welcoming the proposal is The Resolution Foundation, a think tank which has previously calculated that only one in eight workers qualify for the financial support currently offered to those told to self-isolate.
Researcher Maja Gustafsson said: ‘The current approach is not fit for purpose with statutory sick pay among the least generous of advanced economies and far too few people eligible for the £500 support payments.
‘Swiftly putting in place a much more universal and generous system will make a real difference to controlling the spread of the virus.’
The DHSC said it would not comment on a leaked paper but did not deny that blanket self-isolation payouts had been mooted.
A Government source suggested it was just one of many options being discussed as part of improving stay-at-home compliance for those who had tested positive.
A DHSC spokesman said: ‘We are in one of the toughest moments of this pandemic and it is incumbent on all of us to help protect the NHS by staying at home and following the rules.
‘All local authority costs for administering the Test and Trace support payment scheme are covered by the Government, and each authority is empowered to make discretionary payments outside of the scheme.
‘£50 million was invested when the scheme launched, and we are providing a further £20 million to help support people on low incomes who need to self-isolate.’
Boris Johnson has refused to rule out the lockdown lasting until the summer, while Home Secretary Priti Patel said it was ‘far too early’ to speculate on whether restrictions would be lifted in time to allow Britons a foreign holiday during the warmer months.
This has prompted a group of 70 Tory MPs to demand the Prime Minister publish a timetable for lifting measures by the beginning of March.
The Covid Recovery Group’s chairman Mark Harper added: ‘People must see light at the end of the tunnel and feel hope for the future and businesses need to be able to plan our recovery.’
Northern Ireland has confirmed its coronavirus lockdown is to be extended for a further four weeks to March 5.
The Government’s caution in announcing a timetable to ease the lockdown has sparked fears in the hospitality industry that ministers could be preparing to tell pubs and restaurants to keep their doors closed until May.
This is despite Downing Street’s aim to have all of the most vulnerable people in the country vaccinated by February 15.
With 1,290 further deaths and 37,892 new cases were reported yesterday, experts modelling the pandemic suggested there could be a huge surge in cases if restrictions were lifted too early.
Dr Marc Baguelin, from Imperial College London, who sits on the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) which advises the Government, said the opening of the hospitality sector before May would lead to another ‘bump’ in transmission.
But UKHospitality chief Kate Nicholls warned delaying reopening until then would mean there would be ‘very little left’ of the sector once the measures were finally eased as Tory MPs urged Boris Johnson to stick to the timetable of restoring freedoms by March.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.