If the UK had spent more money in helping people to self-think during the epidemic, then less people would have been infected or died, the former head of NHS test and trace said.

Baronic Dido Harding, who was in charge of the program in England, told Kovid inquiries that he argued to increase financial assistance repeatedly, but was “disappointed” with the then Chancellor, Rishi Sunak’s response.

“There was an intraction that I think was very sad,” he said in his evidence.

On 28 September 2020, the government introduced a £ 500 self-paying payment for low-income employees on state benefits, which was asked to stay at home after being exposed to an infected person.

A parallel scheme of discretionary payment was established by some local authorities to support people outside the welfare system.

In its evidence, Baron Harding said that Britain proportionally “spent much less than other developed countries, making the deprived people able to self-pride”.

He said, “If we had allocated the NHS test and trace budget more for the separation support, I firmly suspect that less death and the rate of infection would have been low with all the benefits that had brought,” he said in his witness statement.

“This is definitely what I wanted to persuade the ministers to persuade the ministers,” he said at the hearing.

“But I was not going to decide. The decision maker was the Chancellor in it and on every occasion, from June (2020), the Chancellor rejected the proposals.”

Last week, the investigation was shown a private diary entries written by Lord Patrick Valence, the then Chief Scientific Advisor of the government.

He wrote at that time that instead of the “carrot” of the government’s science advisors, the “stick” of the enforcement to convince people to celebrate self-thinking was the “instinct” of policy makers to use the “stick”.

After a meeting, on 27 July 2020, he wrote: “Dido (Harding) pushed people to get financial assistance to testing less socio-economic groups.

“Rishi (Sunak) reacted strongly to him and originally said:” Just stop social interaction. “

In May 2020, a former retail and telecom executive baronic Harding, appointed to lead the test and trace system, stated that data was suggested in the first year of the epidemic that individuals were not being tested because they were “afraid of the results of separation”.

“To be honest, it was intensely disappointing,” he said in interrogation, saying that he found “quite upset” while reading the message from that time.

He said, “We really tried to convince the ministers that (increase in financial support) would be a good thing, not only for the personal good of those underprivileged, but also financially, because it was one of the ways you could do less financial loss to the country,” he said.

She said that she felt that Chancellor Rishi Sunak had rejected her arguments as the “point of theory” because she did not want to create a new welfare advantage.

“I don’t think there was any amount of data and analysis that I could have put that his mind would have changed,” he said.

“I think you can hear my frustration as I say.”

The sage craze has not been invited to give evidence to this three -week section of Kovid inquiry, which is looking at testing, contact transportation and isolation policies.

However, last week, a senior civil servant in the Treasury, Dan York-Smith said that several economic measures were taken to support the workers, including the statutory sick pay and extension of the Furlon Yojana.

He said that Chancellors were particularly concerned about creating “deformed intensity”, which could increase the risks of fraud, or means that some workers could be paid more to separate self-separate than wages.