To wonder how self employed people (& others) are meant to afford to self isolate?

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

Apparently people who have been in contact with a confirmed case are being told to self isolate for 14 days, even when they've not got any symptoms. According to the NHS website, you can't get an at home testing kit unless you have symptoms, and even then you might not be prioritised.

Self employed people don't get paid if we don't work. Many of us have found ourselves effectively banned from working and then excluded from all forms of COVID-related financial support - for example, I can't get a penny because I went self employed last year (so no SEISS), don't have premises covered by SBRR (so no £10k grant), don't have any way of paying back a loan, and I've even been told that I qualify for £0 in Universal Credit (and even if it did, it wouldn't cover my most modest living expenses in a rough area of a cheap city). I'm also a private tenant - so no mortgage holiday; landlord insists on full rent. I've been through all the other schemes and I'm not eligible for any of those either. I'm dependent on the now-cancelled summer events season for my income for the entire year; there's very limited demand for my business in the winter months.

Now, apparently, even after lockdown lifts and I try to earn what little money I can in the last of the summer, I can be told to self isolate and not work for 14 days, with no word on how I'm meant to cover my additional losses, and with the knowledge that I could be told to self isolate repeatedly. I cannot afford to self isolate!

A sense of civic duty doesn't pay the rent or put food on the table.

[Hoppinggreen]

Me and DH are both SE, fortunately he can work completely from home and and I can do most of mine from home too BUT if I got a call to tell me that someone anonymous had said they had been in contact with me so I had to self isolate I wouldn’t do it if it cost me my livelihood.

[confusedofengland]

Following this thread with interest. My DH is self-employed & not eligible for any of the help offered by the government. This is because over 50% of his work last year was PAYE, as he is on contracts which can be either/or (common in his industry). He no longer has that PAYE contract & hasn't for some time, so can't be paid anything from that. I am zero hours for the local authority who will not furlough me, and even then I don't bring in much at all when working (£100-£300 pcm). So we are currently surviving on DS2'S DLA plus my carer's allowance & child benefit. For now, it just about covers our bills as we are on a mortgage payment holiday, but I don't know how we'll pay the mortgage when that ends (next month)! I am selling stuff from around the house, but that is a slow process & not bringing in much money at all, however it is better than nothing.

[HeIenaDove]

@NELass Nazir Afzal is a lawyer not a journalist. If he is concerned about it then there is something to be concerned about.

[NELass]

HelenaDove

All I'm saying is that there is a process if you think it's been malicious. The papers aren't reporting that though. He obviously doesn't know that either

[HeIenaDove]

Maybe the reason people arent believing that is because there has been no remedy in other situatons. e,g. Nothing is done if someone is reported maliciously to the DWP.

So surely you can see why people are skeptical.

[NELass]

No need to be sceptical though. There is a process and if you feel it's been malicious, then you tell the tracer and it gets taken from there