Northernsoullover that's exactly it. It's as if I never existed, after several years of loyal service. Not heard a peep, or an enquiry as to will I go hungry?
Unfortunately, the whole point of being self-employed is that it's up to you to make sure you won't go hungry. You're a SE cleaner who currently can't clean because of COVID, but you could equally be a SE builder who's broken a leg falling down the stairs and can no longer work for a few months. Similarly, you could be a SE gardener who stays perfectly fit and well and able to work but still nobody wants your services in Winter.
You either become an employee and give up a lot of your freedoms to somebody else, who, in return has to take on those risks on your behalf; or you go/stay self-employed and have the liberty to pick your clients, choose your working hours, set your prices, but you also have to bear the risks of being unable to work - whether through illness, pandemic, lack of custom, whatever - all by yourself.
It's up to you alone to prepare/insure for hard times and unforeseen circumstances. You're like a shop and your services are your merchandise - people see what you have to sell, look at the price and decide if they want to buy it or not.
The same as if you're looking at travel options, you weigh up the costs and benefits of the bus or train vs a much more expensive taxi. If you have plenty of time to get there and only one small bag, you'll probably take the train and it won't even enter into your head that, by deciding against the taxi and saving yourself a considerable sum, some poor cabbie and his family might go hungry.
I think the assumption that a lot of people have about cleaning as a profession is that it's always somebody feeling forced into a job purely because they're poor. This is a very condescending way to look at things and belittles the value of the job and the skill of the worker.
If you see a Big Issue seller on the street, you quite probably will spend £3 on a magazine (might even give them a fiver or a tenner) which you'd never dream of buying if it were on the shelf at WH Smith, but it's understood that they are, in the nicest way, a needy charity case, with a real imbalance of power. This shouldn't be the case for a cleaner, hairdresser, nail technician, painter and decorator, taxi driver - unless you genuinely want/need their service and they genuinely want/need to earn your money, no arrangement or transaction should go ahead. Both of you should be equal dignified participants in any transaction, with neither of you fulfilling your side purely/chiefly as a 'favour' to the other, because you feel sorry for them.