{"value":{"id":1783604,"askingMemberId":4927,"askingMember":null,"house":"Lords","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2025-03-11T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2025-03-25T00:00:00","uin":"HL5653","questionText":"To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future impact of long Covid on economic productivity and workforce participation.","answeringBodyId":29,"answeringBodyName":"Department for Work and Pensions","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":false,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":4147,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2025-03-25T00:00:00","answerText":"<p>Across the NHS in England there are services supporting people with post-COVID syndrome (long COVID). These services offer physical, cognitive and psychological assessment, and, where appropriate, refer patients onto existing services for treatment and rehabilitation.</p><p> </p><p>To support clinical leadership in this area, NHSE has worked in partnership with the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine to develop a new Clinical Post-COVID Society to facilitate the ongoing sharing of best practice to support people affected by long COVID. More information about the Society can be found at the following link: <a href=\"https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.clinicalpcs.org.uk%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7CMark.Burley1%40dwp.gov.uk%7C669748f74bf548e7465808dd6861d615%7C96f1f6e910574117ac2880cdfe86f8c3%7C0%7C0%7C638781491915047893%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=buKvy6OSksNR2d%2FJwQPrb6XZ%2F6rH7D8ZieLMvl405rU%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.clinicalpcs.org.uk</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The UK Government has also invested over £57 million into long COVID research. The projects aim to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, and to evaluate clinical care.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Recent <a href=\"https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/how-much-does-long-covid-cost-individuals-informal-carers-and-society/\" target=\"_blank\">government-funded research from the National Institute for Health and Care Research</a> estimated the economic impact on the UK at the time of the study (March 2023) as £5.7 billion from those with long COVID unable to work as before. More than half of respondents worked fewer hours or stopped working and on average had a 25% drop in earnings or nearly £11,000 each. The Department has made no assessment of the future impact of long Covid on economic productivity and workforce participation.</p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":0,"heading":"Unemployment: Long Covid","attachments":[],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/1783604","method":"GET"}]}