Belated Update!
Hello everyone! Happy Holidays to all of you celebrating at this time of year.
Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few weeks: The hack of the pension survey hit Cass very hard and they’re taking quite a while to bounce back from this. Other members of the team have been struggling with symptoms and also trying to deal with issues in their lives, so we have all had to engage self-care mode - high level!
In some good news, the pension survey should be back next week - if you have already completed this, you do not have to complete it again. We have had some incredibly kind offers of support and assistance from a number of individuals and groups, which are so appreciated.
However, what happened has set us back at least three weeks, which is not ideal going into a new year, having to plan ahead, to take into account other things happening or now in planning mode.
Cass has spoken with their MP, Deidre Brock and the Long Covid CPG MSPs at the Scottish Parliament and we as a group have reached out to individuals and long Covid groups ahead of next March’s second International Long Covid Awareness Day. We feel, especially in a general election year, that it’s really important to keep Long Covid front and centre, especially given the lack of support across the U.K. and the fact that there’s still nothing from the U.K. government on deciding Long Covid is an occupational disease, let alone making sure Keyworkers across all sectors are financially secure and compensated for what they’ve gone through. March 2024 starts the fourth year of this existence for many of us, although we know of others who were sick before then.
As a group, we would really love it if we could get dates in every single Parliament, Assembly or Senedd in the U.K. on or around the second Long Covid Awareness Day. If we are lucky, this will be only a small part of many actions aimed at raising awareness about every part of the U.K. Long Covid community.
Is there something you can do? Yes! In talks with Deidre Brock, she feels that a Back Bench Business Debate - which would be in the main chamber at Westminster - would be ideal, but in order for this to happen, we need cross party support from MPs to do this. We are going to write to MPs across all parties to see if we can get this support, but it would be incredibly helpful if YOU could help us with this by writing to your MP to see if they’d be happy to come together with Deidre to support a request for debate next March (or sooner, if it looks like the House will be suspended ahead of campaigning in a general election). If you, your friends or family can explain what it’s like to live with Long Covid, everything that’s happened as a result of the pandemic, this would be so incredibly helpful. We think it’s best they drop Deidre an email to see how best to approach the Back Bench Business Committee - but let’s make this happen!
That’s all for today! We are hoping to get back to you before Christmas to let you know the pensions survey is back, but if we don’t, we wish you a peaceful, restful and restorative festive season, with our best wishes for 2024.