Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Nov 28, 2024 3:44:46 GMT
Long Covid Support statement on the Get Britain Working White Paper - Published Nov 26, 2024
Long Covid Support welcomes the Government’s Get Britain Working White Paper's increased focus on health, treatment and bringing down NHS waiting lists.
We also welcome the launch of an independent review into how employers can be better supported to employ people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, and to keep them in the workplace.
Failings in workplace health and safety, inadequate sickness leave arrangements and lack of reasonable adjustments have had devastating consequences for workers disabled by Long Covid. One in seven workers with Long Covid have lost their jobs to their new disability and more than half have experienced unfair treatment at work, according to the Long Covid Support and TUC survey published last year. Two in three were key workers in health, social care and education, many were NHS workers, as the Covid Inquiry has heard. It is problematic that prevention of Covid and other airborne infections is not mentioned in the White Paper section on prevention first approach to health.
Long Covid Support is concerned that Long Covid is not mentioned by the Government in proposing changes to disability welfare at a time when it is defunding Long Covid clinics and services across the health service in England. More than 2 million people (and likely as high as 3 million, based on the recent nationwide GP survey) are currently diagnosed as living with the profound, life-changing and disabling effects of Long Covid. Millions more are suffering an exacerbation of existing health conditions. They want to regain their health and their working lives but are inadequately supported to do so in a society that seeks to ignore their existence. The Government urgently needs to acknowledge Long Covid and its impacts on long term health and employment in this country, and to work with the patient community instead of ignoring our lived experiences.
Inability to work as a result of a health condition cannot be addressed without recognising and addressing the health condition itself. Any efforts to help people with Long Covid return to work must centre around treatment, reasonable adjustments, flexibility around recurring symptoms and medical appointments. Key reasonable adjustments include the right to work flexibly and, where practical, remotely, and Covid mitigations in the workplace to protect from infections that put all workers at risk of Long Covid. For workers with Long Covid, Covid reinfections set back their health and jeopardise their recovery. Healthcare and education settings, in particular, must put Covid mitigations, especially IPC and clean air, in place to keep workers as well as patients, students and their families safe.
Many people with Long Covid had caught Covid-19 in the workplace, and have been forced to give up much-loved work and careers, including in the NHS and education, to which they had devoted their lives. This has been devastating for many. Toxic rhetoric of “inactivity” that seeks to portray disabled benefit claimants as lazy or blame them for needing and being entitled to welfare support must end. Long Covid does and has been shown by repeated legal tests to meet the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010. Failing to recognise and address Long Covid as disability in the workplace contributes to individual suffering and to UK unemployment rates. The issue of employment, welfare and health, cannot be addressed without urgently addressing ongoing Covid-19 infections, public health, and Long Covid, as a matter of national policy.
We are deeply concerned that conditionality remains a feature of the Government’s approach to benefits for disabled and chronically ill people. Research and experience have shown that conditionality and benefit sanctions are not effective in returning ill and disabled people to work. It is time for welfare sanctions to be removed and workplace safety to be made central to the UK Government’s approach to tackling unemployment.
It is time to prioritise health and appropriate support at work. And it is time for a national conversation about the attitudes and language used around disability and welfare.
Whether visible or invisible, disability is disability, and the UK must meet its international commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. It can start by removing disability discrimination from public discourse, and the Government can lead by example. This White Paper provides the opportunity to rebuild trust in the NHS and the DWP. We hope this opportunity is taken.
Welfare is our common, fundamental responsibility to each other as a society. The UK’s welfare system should be celebrated and strengthened, as should our National Health Service.
Long Covid Support welcomes the Government’s Get Britain Working White Paper's increased focus on health, treatment and bringing down NHS waiting lists.
We also welcome the launch of an independent review into how employers can be better supported to employ people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, and to keep them in the workplace.
Failings in workplace health and safety, inadequate sickness leave arrangements and lack of reasonable adjustments have had devastating consequences for workers disabled by Long Covid. One in seven workers with Long Covid have lost their jobs to their new disability and more than half have experienced unfair treatment at work, according to the Long Covid Support and TUC survey published last year. Two in three were key workers in health, social care and education, many were NHS workers, as the Covid Inquiry has heard. It is problematic that prevention of Covid and other airborne infections is not mentioned in the White Paper section on prevention first approach to health.
Long Covid Support is concerned that Long Covid is not mentioned by the Government in proposing changes to disability welfare at a time when it is defunding Long Covid clinics and services across the health service in England. More than 2 million people (and likely as high as 3 million, based on the recent nationwide GP survey) are currently diagnosed as living with the profound, life-changing and disabling effects of Long Covid. Millions more are suffering an exacerbation of existing health conditions. They want to regain their health and their working lives but are inadequately supported to do so in a society that seeks to ignore their existence. The Government urgently needs to acknowledge Long Covid and its impacts on long term health and employment in this country, and to work with the patient community instead of ignoring our lived experiences.
Inability to work as a result of a health condition cannot be addressed without recognising and addressing the health condition itself. Any efforts to help people with Long Covid return to work must centre around treatment, reasonable adjustments, flexibility around recurring symptoms and medical appointments. Key reasonable adjustments include the right to work flexibly and, where practical, remotely, and Covid mitigations in the workplace to protect from infections that put all workers at risk of Long Covid. For workers with Long Covid, Covid reinfections set back their health and jeopardise their recovery. Healthcare and education settings, in particular, must put Covid mitigations, especially IPC and clean air, in place to keep workers as well as patients, students and their families safe.
Many people with Long Covid had caught Covid-19 in the workplace, and have been forced to give up much-loved work and careers, including in the NHS and education, to which they had devoted their lives. This has been devastating for many. Toxic rhetoric of “inactivity” that seeks to portray disabled benefit claimants as lazy or blame them for needing and being entitled to welfare support must end. Long Covid does and has been shown by repeated legal tests to meet the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010. Failing to recognise and address Long Covid as disability in the workplace contributes to individual suffering and to UK unemployment rates. The issue of employment, welfare and health, cannot be addressed without urgently addressing ongoing Covid-19 infections, public health, and Long Covid, as a matter of national policy.
We are deeply concerned that conditionality remains a feature of the Government’s approach to benefits for disabled and chronically ill people. Research and experience have shown that conditionality and benefit sanctions are not effective in returning ill and disabled people to work. It is time for welfare sanctions to be removed and workplace safety to be made central to the UK Government’s approach to tackling unemployment.
It is time to prioritise health and appropriate support at work. And it is time for a national conversation about the attitudes and language used around disability and welfare.
Whether visible or invisible, disability is disability, and the UK must meet its international commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. It can start by removing disability discrimination from public discourse, and the Government can lead by example. This White Paper provides the opportunity to rebuild trust in the NHS and the DWP. We hope this opportunity is taken.
Welfare is our common, fundamental responsibility to each other as a society. The UK’s welfare system should be celebrated and strengthened, as should our National Health Service.