Covid-19: Financial Support

Steve Witherden Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)]

I thank my friend the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Manuela Perteghella) for securing this incredibly important and long-overdue debate, and for being such a strong voice for those excluded from covid-19 financial support.

The gaps in covid-19 financial support all-party parliamentary group, which I chair, currently has 77 cross- party members, which demonstrates the strength of feeling across the House and the desire to represent constituents affected by this issue. We have just heard a powerful case for acknowledging that approximately 3.8 million people were wholly or partially excluded from meaningful covid-19 financial support. Years later, many remain burdened by unimaginable debt, some disgusting smears, declining mental health and the loss of homes, businesses and livelihoods.

I was an advocate for some of these under-represented people in my previous role as the NASUWT national executive member for the six counties of north Wales. Supply teachers, with no contracted hours at all and no guaranteed work from day to day, even before the pandemic, were placed in a terrible position. In four of the north Wales counties I represented, a furlough-type payment was arranged. In two, Gwynedd and Ynys Môn, a furlough payment was not arranged. That cohort of workers went through incredibly difficult times. In any capacity, professional or otherwise, when we speak with people who cannot pay their rent or are in mortgage arrears, or when we hear young, hungry children crying in the background over the phone, it leaves a deep and lasting impression.

During the run-up to the 2024 general election, I met campaigners for ExcludedUK and learned that this situation was far bigger than supply teachers in two counties in north-west Wales; it affected millions of people across the country and in many different industries. One of those campaigners was Ken, a small business owner and now a constituent of mine. He remembers the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak) promising to the nation that no one would be left behind, and then the shock of finding himself with no support. Not only was he left without support for day-to-day living, but he had to shoulder the ongoing costs of keeping a business afloat. The pandemic brought much to a halt, but software licences, professional fees and other essential overheads did not stop.

Ken began working at age 17 and is now 72. He describes the pandemic as the only time he needed help. The help was not there. That feeling has stayed with him ever since, and not only because of the toll on his mental health, but because of the monthly reminder when he has to repay the bounce back loan that he was forced to take out in order to survive the pandemic.

Ken’s is just one of many people still suffering from the after effects of being excluded. Forty known suicides have been directly linked to exclusion from covid-19 financial support, but hundreds more people have attempted suicide, and there is widespread clinical anxiety, depression and trauma. Those figures relate only to individuals known within the ExcludedUK membership, and are likely to represent only a fraction of the true number.

Will the Minister acknowledge that the exclusion of around 3.8 million taxpayers from meaningful covid-19 financial support was a serious policy failure? Will the Government publish an assessment of the continuing financial and psychological harm, including suicide risk, and set out the support pathway for affected people? Finally, what steps is he taking to ensure that future crisis support will be inclusive, with stronger parliamentary oversight?

I wish to put on the record my personal thanks to Jennifer Griffiths, head of member welfare at ExcludedUK and secretariat of the APPG—she is the backbone of this campaign, and without her tireless work, many more lives would have been lost—as well as to Tim Pravda, for his long-standing advocacy and indispensable voice in this ongoing fight for justice. I would appreciate it if the Minister agreed to meet the APPG, ExcludedUK and bereaved families of those who died by suicide linked to exclusion.