Victoria has paid out its $450 Covid-19 test isolation payment more than 500,000 times since July last year, including a massive spike during last month’s lockdown, as calls grow for New South Wales to adopt a similar scheme.
While test numbers have been sky-high in New South Wales during the current lockdown, experts have warned some of the people most at risk of contracting the virus face barriers to getting tested.
The concern from some epidemiologists and unions is that casual workers may resist getting tested because they are worried about the financial hit of losing work while they are waiting for their test result. Another worry is job security for turning down work.
This week, the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, appeared to dismiss the need for such a payment in NSW, but the state Labor opposition is now calling for it to be introduced.
In Victoria, where the scheme was created during last year’s second wave to prevent workers infecting their colleagues, take-up has been significant.
Data obtained by Guardian Australia shows that since July, the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions has issued 516,710 Covid-19 test isolation payments.
In June and July this year, which included periods when Victoria was in lockdown, claims for the payment rose sharply to 87,019 and 94,381 per month. Already, 25,577 test isolation payments have been issued this month, with the state once again in lockdown.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said this week the measure had been crucial.
“We don’t know for every individual, [but] I think it’s a really important measure,” he said. “It clearly supports someone to be able to wait at home for that test result if they would otherwise lose income through casual work.”
NSW, like all states, also offers the pandemic leave payment – which is worth $1,500 – for people who have been directed to self-isolate for 14 days.
But there is no specific compensation for lost income for people who can’t work because they are waiting for a test result. In some cases, people have reported waiting as long as four days for a test result.
The NSW Labor opposition now believes the state government needs to do more.
“It’s time NSW introduced a test and isolate payment,” the party’s health spokesman, Ryan Park, said on Friday.
“Right across NSW people are doing it tough. And we hear anecdotally people are not getting tested because they can’t afford to stay at home while they await their test results.”
Victoria’s Covid test isolation payment – which began at $300 and was boosted to $450 in August 2020 – is targeted at casual workers. Similar payments are available in the ACT, Tasmania and South Australia.
Strict criteria means people who already have leave entitlements, already get Centrelink benefits, or were getting jobkeeper payment are ineligible.
People must prove their employment to apply, and anyone later caught in the community when they should be isolating is required to pay the money back.
The payment, announced last year on a day Victoria recorded 403 new cases, was put in place to curb workplace transmission, in a period when the government was concerned people were simply going to work while they had symptoms.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, said at the time that of the 3,810 cases recorded between 7 July and 21 July, 90% had not isolated between first feeling sick and getting a test.
While the payment is now a long-standing part of the Victorian regime, the government was criticised at the time for not addressing the problem quickly enough.
“Pandemic leave payments and test isolation payments were good initiatives, but came too late,” the Grattan Institute said in a submission to the state’s Covid-19 inquiry last year.
But once it arrived, the payment made a difference, according to Sally McManus, the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
“The Covid-19 test isolation payment that the Victorian government introduced last year was very effective; it meant workers weren’t forced into a situation where they had to breach quarantine to earn a living,” she said. “This supported not only the isolating worker, but it kept entire workplaces and communities safe from potential spreading of the virus.”
On Monday, Berejiklian was asked about Victoria’s payments and whether NSW would follow suit. She said such payments were not needed because of the commonwealth disaster payment, even though these payments are for people whose work has been affected by the lockdown, not those who have gone to get tested.
“People are getting what they need, over and above the payments that are offered,” Berejiklian said this week.
“We are always looking at opportunities to do more, but please rest assured we’ve thought and worked very hard to make sure people in those communities have every support they need, so that people don’t feel they need to break the rules.”
News Corp reported late last month that the NSW government was considering a test isolation payment, though it suggested there were internal concerns about the cost.
Indeed, the Victorian payment has likely cost well in excess of $200m in 12 months.
Another concern may be the impact the isolation payment might have on an already strained testing system in NSW.
Prof Catherine Bennett, chair in epidemiology at Deakin University, told Guardian Australia this week that testing was “not just about the numbers but making sure those most at risk are getting tested”.
Andrews clearly views the payment as crucial to Victoria’s response. “If, while you isolate waiting for that result you are out of pocket, we will pay you $450,” he said at Friday’s press conference. “I don’t know if other states are doing that but it is something we have done and will continue to do.”
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, was approached for comment.
