England is giving 500 pounds to people self-isolating following Covid trace app alert

The support payment is available via the app for all people who are self-isolating after receiving a notification from the Covid tracing app in England.

The payment has been designed to encourage people to stay at home when they test positive for Covid-19, to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. (REUTERS)

England's Covid test and trace system is making a 500 pound ($665) support payment available for people who self-isolate after receiving a notification via its app, it said on Thursday.

The money was already available for people told to self-isolate by contact tracers via phone, email or test message, but not previously through the app due to its anonymous nature.

Any individual who receives a self-isolation alert in the app were now able to register their details to receive the payment, the service said.

Strong protection for user privacy was a key requirement set by Apple and Google when they made the technology available to develop Covid-19 contact tracing apps.

Individual users are not required to enter personal details when they register to use the app, meaning automatically generated notification requests to self-isolate cannot be enforced.

A user will remain anonymous after receiving a notification if they do not wish to claim the money, the service said.

The payment is designed to encourage people to stay at home when they test positive for Covid-19, to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. 

($1 = 0.7523 pounds)