Coronavirus for freelancers

[Rebecca980]

Hi all!
Not applied to myself, but my husband is a freelancer working in film (for social content, adverts, company vids ect).
He has already had two jobs for next week cancelled due to Coronavirus. And I hear we may be moving into “delay” phase tomorrow where working from home will be advised (or ordered or whatever it is!) by government. So may be likely that work will dry up for a bit.
Is anybody else experiencing this or worried about it? Trying not to worry - and hopefully all will be fine! But interested to see if any other freelancers in similar industry are/or are worried about missing out on work for a while.

[DianaT1969]

I am freelance and all future work is cancelled (creative and events sector). I won't have any income for March and February was already lean, due to seasonal low.
Will your DH apply for benefits?
I'm torn between urgently trying to get any job locally, such as stacking shelves, but realise that shops/bars/restaurants may be forced to close anyway. I applied for loads last week, but no response. I'm not their typical employee and they won't want to give me a permanent role. So that limits my chances to temp work. I really wish this country had a stronger work from home economy. I have loads of skills, but genuine work from home jobs that can support a household have always been scarce.
I've never needed to apply for benefits before, so unsure what to do for the best.

[DianaT1969]

Is your DH the sole earner?

[Rebecca980]

@DianaT1969 thanks for reply! No, I work. Currently in London with a commute from Sussex. So I may need to work from home just to save on travel costs at the moment. In my last two weeks too until I start a new job closer to home, so that will go down like a lead balloon....

Apparently benefits will start for people in his/your situation from day 1 of applying. But unless this applies to housing, it isn’t too much of a help.

I feel for you working in events too! Similar to him, there really isn’t much contingency in this situation. He does film, so is going around clients asking if he can do any edits on existing footage, so fingers crossed at least something will come of that.

I do think the government need to have a better plan in place for people in this situation...

Have you tried companies like Bumble? They will allow monitoring jobs ect from home (I have a friend that does this for a few ‘dating apps’ and pays ok...ish).

He is feeling very frustrated considering he’s been working at this for two years and it was really taking off. And some big projects he was very excited about (and could have seen us quite comfortable for a while!) have been cancelled for the foreseeable. It’s a confidence knock. Keep telling him it’s out of his control and that others will be experiencing this, so should give him a little comfort. It’s going to be hard.

Do you have another source of household income?