PIP for Covid survivors ? 

Please could you share your opinion on the likelihood of a PIP claim being successful for someone who is living with care and mobility needs after surviving Covid (just!).
I am not in any doubt that she would get the points required but I don’t know how she would meet the prospective period test as no-one knows as yet.
Discharged from hospital in May unable to walk and talk her recovery is slow, she stills need help to wash & dress etc and can’t walk without getting breathless.
I can’t find any guidance to rule it out or in at this stage.

I am not medically trained but I would guess that your client’s symptoms are a result of pneumonia and/or having spent time in ICU rather than covid specifically. I would guess that recovery time would depend on age, underlying health/fitness and the severity of infection/amount of time spent in ICU.

At any rate, I think prognosis is a pure medical question and I doubt DWP would be issuing guidance on it specifically - it will be up to HCPs to advise.

Interesting question. Like most of us here I’ve no medical background but based on extensive/endless reading I’m less convinced than Elliot that pneumonia is of relevance. There is a growing body of evidence of fatigue, breathing and mental ill health symptoms persisting. It seems largely connected to those people who required hospital stays but the emphasis really needs to be on that word “seems”. Similarly, I don’t think it’s possible to say whether any of this is long-term when we’re barely 10 months in. Like Elliot I don’t see that this is an area for guidance but really I think you’ve identified the key issue i.e. the prospective test. Right now I don’t see how anyone with symptoms could predict where they will be in 9 months time and on that alone I suspect a claim would fail.

On the other hand I have seen decisions made where the prospective test really ought to have come into play and it just didn’t. Your client has nothing to lose from a claim provided they understand from the outset that it’s a long shot.

Similar to what Elliot said -
Seems there has been significant variety in the aftereffects of Covid, and presumably this would often also depend on pre-existing conditions.

If your client’s health professionals say there is a high likelihood of symptoms persisting for the relevant period I don’t see why there would be any issue with claiming PIP - but that doesn’t really have anything to do with Covid, per say.
Say her coughing fits led to a ruptured lung - here there would be past experiences for a doctor to estimate the length of recovery and so on.

Two thoughts on this: first, assessment and decision-making in PIP claims is now so slow that by the time a decision is made you will have several months’ knowledge as to whether the symptoms are persisting. Secondly, if at that point there is no medical consensus that recovery times from persistent Covid symptoms are less than 9 months you can argue that in the absence of medical knowledge, and the persistence of symptoms, it is likely that the SoS would determine that the claimant would continue in the same way. How could the SoS conclude otherwise?