Essex County Council is providing extra funding to help people who need to self-isolate to stay at home. The new variant of COVID-19 is spreading so fast, it is important that everybody asked to self-isolate does so.

Essex residents who test positive for Covid-19 could be entitled to a £500 Test and Trace Support Payment from the Government. However, many residents who have to self-isolate may be ineligible for the Government payment. It is these people this new fund aims to help.

People may not qualify for Government support because, for instance, they are on zero hours contracts, self-employed and trading for less than one year or self-employed without access to support because of low trading returns. The funds can be accessed by residents by making an application on the local city, district or borough website. The link for Maldon is below

https://www.maldon.gov.uk/info/20087/benefits/9798/test_and_trace_support_scheme