Eleven months into Britain’s Covid crisis, we’re all feeling the effects – but the full scale of the government’s ineptitude is especially clear to Britain’s disabled workers. A near-year of responsibility evasion on the behalf of those in charge has spiralled, for many, into a crisis of mental and physical health, financial insecurity, fear, and marginalisation.

In November, an ONS survey found that disabled people were more likely than non-disabled people to report a deterioration in their mental health during the pandemic. This isn’t surprising considering that two thirds of the 100,000 death-toll have been people with disabilities. With many falling into the ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ category, what protections are on offer for the working disabled population?

The short answer is barely any. You have to really scrape the barrel to find them, and when you do, closer inspection reveals that they are the same, meagre, one-size-fits-all concessions afforded to other workers. New government guidance unequivocally orders the extremely vulnerable to stay at home, even if this means missing work. This unambiguous request is followed by counterintuitively vague solutions: you ‘may’ be able to be furloughed; you ‘may’ be entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP).

The decision about whether to put employees on furlough ultimately lies with the employer. The job retention scheme is voluntary, so there’s no right to appeal any decision – and although 71 percent of working mothers have had their furlough requests rejected by their bosses, the Tories have resisted calls for mandatory obligations to place struggling employees on the scheme. Equally, there are no plans in the government’s pipeline for compulsory furlough for the disabled workers who have been told to shield.

Last month, disabilities minister Justin Tomlinson was seen to brandish the Tories’ record on disability support during Covid with a strange pride. His main boast? The £95.85 per week of SSP on offer to those shielding. This measly cheque is not even available to all: workers must earn at least £120 per week, eliminating many low-paid and part-time workers from its scope. Disabled workers are significantly more likely to be employed on a part-time basis than their non-disabled counterparts.

Within the general population, a fifth of self-isolating workers have been unable to claim any sick pay at all, forcing disabled workers to choose between financial and physical health – and with 43 percent of workers reporting that they would be unable to pay the bills if forced to self-isolate on SSP, the latter is often forced into second place. That figure rises to almost half for people with disabilities, but there are no additional financial protections in place. All this encourages self-isolation non-compliance, fuelling the spread and putting the disabled community at further risk.

Tomlinson has also boasted of the other benefits available to supplement SSP for workers with disabilities, which is depressingly ironic given the insurmountable hurdles that so many applicants face. Recently, a Coroner’s Court found the mishandling of a benefits claim to be a ‘predominant factor’ in the death of a disabled benefits applicant: 27-year-old mother Philippa Day was found collapsed besides a letter rejecting her request for an at-home benefits assessment. Tomlinson himself has consistently voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability.

Labour’s response to the government’s inaction has also been lacking. Last month, Tracy Brabin proposed a progressive bill to force the Tories to assess and remedy the gaps in financial support during the pandemic. She listed injustices, from the recently self-employed who fall short of the timing thresholds for income support, to the zero-hours workers who have found themselves locked out of the furlough scheme. Unfortunately, was no mention of the disabled workers who have not been furloughed, and upon government orders to stay home at all costs, have found themselves barely scaping by on £96 per week.

Perhaps more positively, the government recently launched a public consultation on the treatment of disabled people – but it has been poorly advertised and has provided limited means for disabled people without internet access to voice their opinions. Too little, too late – and too pathetic a stand-in for the safety that ordinary people should be able to expect from their government.

Instead, the issue has been left in the hands of disability rights groups and trade unions. Last month, the TUC called on the government to raise SSP to at least the real living wage, and last week, as we reached the ‘sobering milestone’ of 100,000 deaths, Disability Rights UK CEO Kamran Mallick wrote an open letter demanding a full inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic. The views in his letter are shared by much of the country: the government has by no means done the best it could; the disabled, the vulnerable, and those in care homes have been left behind – not only in terms of their livelihoods, but their lives.

But the efforts and voices of these groups, however impressive, can only go so far. The government’s coronavirus methodology has proved, above all else, unreliable: pubs, restaurants, shops, and schools have all been opened only to be closed again; the lack of long-term planning fuelled by a tunnel-visioned emphasis on the economy has created considerable fear among those whose lives depend on consistency. The ‘economy’ is too intangible a concept for individuals when bills must be paid, and mouths must be fed.