Latest updates: work and pensions secretary says she is in discussions with PM and chancellor
- Ministers won’t commit to reopening schools in England after Easter
- Councils to get £23m to encourage high-risk groups to take vaccine
- Boris Johnson being urged to impose blanket travel controls
- Coronavirus global updates – live
The Office for National Statistics has just published a report on Covid deaths in 2020 by occupation. And its key conclusion, illustrated by this table, is that, among the working age population, men who were working in low-skilled jobs, in the care sector or in other service jobs were most at risk. They were more than three times as likely from Covid as professionals, the ONS says.
Today’s analysis shows that jobs with regular exposure to Covid-19 and those working in close proximity to others continue to have higher Covid-19 death rates when compared with the rest of the working age population. Men continue to have higher rates of death than women, making up nearly two thirds of these deaths.
As the pandemic has progressed, we have learnt more about the disease and the communities it impacts most. There are a complex combination of factors that influence the risk of death; from your age and your ethnicity, where you live and who you live with, to pre-existing health conditions. Our findings do not prove that the rates of death involving Covid-19 are caused by differences in occupational exposure.
Good morning. Only seven days ago Boris Johnson ordered his MPs to abstain in a Commons vote on a Labour motion saying the £20-per-week uplift in universal credit, introduced as a temporary measure during lockdown, should be extended beyond March. In the debate Will Quince, the welfare minister who was speaking for the government, said that while the government was not ruling out preserving the uplift in some way, the government had to wait for “more clarity on the national economic and social picture” before it could take a decision.
A week later, it seems the government now has all the clarity it needs, because Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and she hoped a decision would be announced shortly on extending support for people who have been receiving the £20 per week.
I’m in active discussion with the chancellor, and, of course with the prime minister, about how we continue to make sure we support families during this difficult time. We’ve done a variety of things as a government – whether it’s been furlough, self-employed, the element for people who aren’t working or have had significantly reduced hours and are on universal credit as well – and I can assure you this is under very active consideration.
I can assure you that we are in active consideration of the options on how to best support people during this time and I hope we will be able to come to a decision soon. We are working very closely with the Treasury so that we can make sure that we have the best decision which I hope the prime minister will be able to announce shortly.
Related: Coronavirus live news: locked down city in China faces food shortages; global cases near 100m
Continue reading…
