Critical Mass writer and blogger Charlotte Hughes used her blog this week to highlight the terrible effects of long covid. Despite a long struggle to shrug off the disease Charlotte reported this week, “I’ve been ill for over a week now and today my daughter has woken up feeling ill..”
In June the government reported that an estimated 2 million people may be suffering with long covid. Long covid is calculated as those who have symptoms lasting longer than 12 weeks. The report showed that long covid was more prevalent among women or those who live in deprived areas.
Bills
Meanwhile Charlotte, a campaigner for those on benefits and without work, used her weekly blog to report: “My internet bill was due today and I can’t afford to pay it. I didn’t choose to be in this situation, none of us do.” This comes at a time when the Government is pushing through its plans to remove the £20 uplift to Universal Credit.
There is nothing worse for a person in poverty than being given some help and then to see it cruelly withdrawn. MPs who voted to do this have an £80,000 salary plus expenses which include £5,500 for each dependent. Meanwhile, as RD Hale pointed out in a tweet, this is considerably more than the £3,087.96 a year a Universal Credi claimant gets each year.
For Charlotte this is going to be a tough time of year as her children return to school needing new uniforms and other school paraphernalia. Everybody connected to Critical Mass sends her our love and hopes she is over the illness soon.
We would encourage readers who want to help Charlotte, firstly never to vote Tory and, secondly, in her individual case, visit her blog and use the donation button to get her through these tough times.