Long COVID, long consequences

The research shines a light on the lack of adequate financial support facing people with Long COVID and the longer-term impacts of the condition on future security.

The lack of support, participants shared, was often underpinned by difficulties with diagnosis and recognition, due to a lack of understanding and awareness by some healthcare professionals.

The study found that all participants with Long COVID experienced a loss of household income since contracting Long COVID, with many forced to use savings and being pushed into debt, and some losing their jobs. Participants also faced additional costs linked to their condition and barriers in accessing disability and employment-related benefits.

Key findings include:

• Significantly reduced incomes: due to sick pay, reduced hours, job loss and reliance on social security
• Lack of workplace support: Poor awareness, limited policies relating to Long COVID, inadequate sick pay, and dismissals
• Extra costs of Long COVID: Home adaptations, food delivery costs, private treatments, and therapies not available or accessible on the NHS
• Barriers to accessing social security: Long waits, stressful assessments, poor recognition of fluctuating symptoms, and uncertainty around reviews
• Future insecurity: Depleted savings, early pension withdrawals, and reduced pension contributions

Recommendations

The report urges employers to provide person-centred support, reasonable adjustments, better sick pay and flexible working, with managers trained on the range of symptoms and fluctuating nature of Long Covid. It calls on the UK Government to reverse planned cuts to the health element of Universal Credit and invest in Access to Work to enable people with Long COVID to access and stay in work.

The Scottish Government should fund advice and welfare rights services to support people with Long COVID to navigate the social security system. Both governments are called on to recognise Long COVID as a disability, improve understanding within the DWP and Social Security Scotland, speed up claims, end the five-week wait for Universal credit, and ensure assessment processes reflect the fluctuating nature of the illness.

Dr Laura Robertson, Research Manager of the Poverty Alliance said: “This research provides crucial evidence on the financial effects of Long COVID on people’s lives in Scotland. Without adequate support, people with Long COVID in Scotland are at risk of being pushed into poverty. In Scotland, we believe that everyone should be able to live a healthy, dignified life. Recommendations put forward by people with Long COVID and civil society organisations in Scotland must be acted upon. Government can strengthen social security, so it provides a stable foundation for people with Long COVID.”

Dr Aileen Grant said: ‘The participants in this study shared with us personal and deeply moving accounts of the impact of Long COVID on their past, current and future lives. Many were frontline workers who had little option but to work through the pandemic, where others have been able to move on.”

Professor Catriona Kennedy, Associate Dean for Research at RGU's School of Pharmacy, Applied Sciences and Public Health, said: “For those still suffering consequences, we owe it to them to ensure appropriate support is in place."