Can I claim PIP for Long Covid?

Information about Long Covid to help you claim PIP:

This guide provides insights into Long Covid and its potential impact on daily living and mobility. It explains how long covid might affect your ability to carry out everyday activities safely, effectively, accurately, and repeatedly.

People with long covid have a range of symptoms and will have different experiences. No two people are the same and symptoms of long covid may differ. Symptoms that may influence PIP claims include:

Extreme tiredness
Cough
Loss of taste and smell
Sore throat
Headache
Feeling short of breath
Problems with memory & concentration
Heart Palpitations
Chest pain and tightness
Dizziness
Joint pain & muscle ache
Tinnitus / earaches
Feeling sick
Loss of appetite
Stomach-ache
Depression and Anxiety

Other symptoms or issues related to long covid should also be considered during the claims process.

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Daily living descriptors

In this section we will look at each of the daily living descriptors and break down how each may be impacted due to Long Covid. Remember this is only looking at how Long Covid may affect you so if you have other conditions or symptoms that are not mentioned do included these when completing you PIP claim.

1. Preparing food

Long Covid can impact how you prepare a simple meal in a variety of ways:

Lack of energy and motivation to prepare food due to aching body and feeling sick.
Challenges with brain fog, following recipes or remembering steps may lead to incomplete meals.
Using a perching stool when dizzy to prevent falls in the kitchen.
Taking rest breaks due to joint, muscle and chest pains including feeling breathless.
Poor grip due to pins and needles when holding pans or opening tins and bottles.
Physically cannot make a meal due to feeling sick.

2. Eating and Drinking

You may experience the following when eating and drinking:

Forgetting or feeling too sick to eat/drink therefore require reminders and prompting
Lose of your sense of smell and taste which has affected your appetite
Due to feeling breathless needs to pace or rest. ·
Uses a perching stool to conserve energy

3. Managing Therapy or monitoring a Health condition

This descriptor examines how you manage health-related treatments, and you may find:

You may need to be prompted and reminded when to take your medication due to brain fog or extreme tiredness.
A dosette box may need to be used to remind you to take your medication
May be anxious when taking medication and you require support
Feel depressed and lack motivation to take medication and manage health condition without help from another person.

4. Washing and Bathing

This looks at the ability of being able to bath or shower and what issues you may experience:

Supervision is needed because you struggle to wash yourself due to extreme fatigue.
You may need supervision while washing due to feeling dizzy and fear falling.
Grab rails and slip mat are used while washing · You feel unsafe getting in and out of the bath or shower. Due to feeling sick and lack of strength.
Shower chair is used due to extreme fatigue

5. Managing Toilet needs or Incontinence

This descriptor is about the ability to use a toilet independently and to be able clean yourself afterwards and have no continence issues:

You need to wear incontinence pads due to long covid giving you diarrhoea.
There may be issues for you to go to the toilet on your own because you struggle to complete the required steps due to extreme fatigue.
To complete this activity successfully you need to be prompted/reminded or require supervision.
Aids need to be used because you struggle to get yourself on or off the toilet e.g. raised toilet seat, toilet frame, grab rail etc

6. Dressing and Undressing

This descriptor looks at someone’s ability to verbally communicate and to be able to express and convey information and to be able to receive and understand information:

You need support to understand complex information.
You struggle to focus on conversations because you are feeling exhausted.
You need an electro larynx or hearing aid/s in order to speak/hear to an acceptable standard.
You use visual or picture clues to help you organise what you want to say before you say it out loud to others.
You may need support to understand complex verbal information because you are too distracted by your focus on other issues to listen attentively.
You may have limited vocabulary.
You may use British Sign Language (BSL) or Makaton or a digital speech device to communicate.

7. Communicating Verbally

In this descriptor they look at your ability to understand and convey verbal information. How does Long Covid affect this activity:

Due to Brain-fog, poor sleep, fatigue or the side effects of your medication, do you need support or assistance to understand complex or basic verbal information?
Do you struggle to hear because of tinnitus and earache
Due to Brain-fog, poor sleep, fatigue or the side effects of your medication, do you have difficulty expressing basic or complex information accurately?
Due to fatigue is your speech slower or laboured, meaning it takes longer than would be reasonable expected to convey basic or complex information.
Due to Brain-fog do you forget what has been said and struggle to retain information. Do you have someone attend appointments with you so that they can remember what has been discussed. Do you specifically ask for things to be written down so that you have it for future reference.

Does sensitivity to sounds make it more difficult for you to follow conversation in noisier environments?

8. Reading understanding Signs, Symbols and Words

This relates to the ability to read and understand written or printed information:

You may use an aid to help you to read e.g. a magnifying glass, permanent retinal implant, Braille, text in a larger font size etc.
You may struggle to read and decode words and understand their meaning and need help from someone to do this.
You may struggle to concentrate and move onto another task before finishing what you are reading.
You may struggle to understand what signs, symbols and numbers represent · You may read more slowly because you struggle to read and understand signs, symbols, words and numbers.
You may need to take breaks from reading because you find it overwhelming.

9. Mixing with other people

People with Long Covid can struggle socially and find it difficult due to:

You may find meeting with people that you don’t know challenging/exhausting due to Long Covid.
You may isolate yourself to protect yourself from other viruses.
You may become anxious being around people when not feeling 100% fit and struggling with brain fog.
Being in an environment with people may deplete your social battery and this may make you very tired.
You may become overwhelmed and need to leave the situation which you are in because you become overwhelmed trying to manage your symptoms.

10. Making Budgeting Decisions

This descriptor looks at if a person suffering from long covid can manage their money:

You may find it difficult to manage your money and struggle to budget.
You may find that you are vulnerable to scams or financial exploitation.
You struggle to read and understand your bank statements and you need support to do this.
You are unable to manage your own finances, and you need help from someone to manage your money.
When shopping, you struggle to understand financial transactions

Mobility descriptors

These evaluate how long Covid may affect mobility related tasks. This is not an exhaustive list; ensure all relevant details are included in your application.

1. Planning and Following a Journeys

Long Covid may make planning and following a journey challenging:

You may struggle to plan or navigate an unfamiliar journey without support from someone else due to fatigue, sickness and brain fog.
You have may not be able to cope if the journey does not go to plan e.g. an accident, roadworks etc along your route and you have to make an unplanned diversion. Due to feelings of anxiety and panic.
Being out in public and trying to navigate your journey may result in you being anxious or lead to a panic attack.
Having started your journey, you may not be able to finish your journey, and you have to return home due to being overwhelmed by you Long Covid symptoms.

2. Moving around

Long Covid may make moving around challenging:

You may struggle to walk more than 200m without an aid or help from another person because you lack the energy or feel breathless.
You may start walking and need to stop and rest.
You may walk at a slower pace.
You feel you are unable to return and repeat the journey safely.
If you have other health conditions and/or a disability, these may affect you moving around so you need to include any relevant information in this section.

Finally…

It is important that when you complete your PIP form, that you include how Long Covid affects you in relation to each descriptor. Ensure that you give specific examples, under each descriptor, where you have struggled due Long Covid where appropriate. It is important that you include any aids, adaptations or support/supervision that you need to help you complete each activity, where appropriate.

This information only covers Long Covid. If you have any other health conditions and/or disability you should include how they impact, you under the relevant descriptors.

Remember to include copies of any relevant medical evidence, diagnosis letters, care plans etc to support your claim for PIP.

Please remember that this is not a complete list and if you have other symptoms or conditions that affect this descriptor, they need to be included on your PIP claim. More information can be found at www.gov.uk