Covid has exposed the inequality of Britain and UK government must act – Angus Robertson

Shocking levels of inequality continue to be exposed in the UK as the coronavirus pandemic impacts disproportionately on the most vulnerable in society.

While the older generation has borne the brunt of Covid as a disease, younger people have been more likely to lose their jobs amid the crisis (Picture: Aaron Chown/PA)

A new year research update by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has outlined the scale of the challenges, which the IFS says can no longer be ducked.

The report identified a range of inequalities including that the mortality rates in the most deprived communities have been about twice as high as those in the least deprived.

People from black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to die than other people while, according to the Office for National Statistics, disabled people have death rates two to three times higher than non-disabled people.

Those who are better off and more highly educated have been able to cope with the crisis better. In contrast, in families with lower incomes, children have found it more difficult to learn at home and have been receiving less online teaching.

While older people have been the victims of higher mortality rates from coronavirus, it is the youngest working generation that has been twice as likely to lose their jobs compared to older workers.

In the midst of this growing inequality, the UK government still plans to cut Universal Credit by £20 per week from April.

Statutory sick pay remains less than the national minimum wage and the poorest two million earners and the self-employed don’t even qualify.

Elsewhere in the industrialised world, sick pay has been raised during the pandemic. Not so in the UK. It is time for Westminster to act against inequality.

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