Childminders Club: JELLYJELLY needs advice ASAP...............!!!

[HellyBelly]

Got back from visiting family this evening and had messages from jellyjelly on answerphone. She had a fall on Boxing Day and has broken her leg quite badly. She's still in hospital and is probably going to need an op to pin the bone and it will be about 3 months (ish) til she'll be able to look after mindees.

This is going to mean a drop in income for her and her family and she's asked me to pop on here to find out if anyone knows if she's entitled to any help financially.

Does anyone know if you can claim benefits or anything when you are self employed?

Any help would be appreciated, hopefully I'll be able to find something out before I go and visit her tomorrow!

Anyway, hope you all had a good Christmas

I had a minding friend who did something very similar - am really not sure, but think she was entitled to a derisory weekly sum of money (£40??) because she'd paid the minimum self-employed National Insurance. Can't contact her at moment, but someone else must know for sure???

Hope she is OK, give her my best wishes.

I'm afraid I can't advise you but wanted to send her my best wishes

As long as she has been paying her national insurance she should be able to claim incapacity benefit. Also if it is going to be a long period she could find out about income support or similar as well.
I hope she is feeling better soon.

No advice here, but also wanted to wish her a speedy recovery

Nothing to add to advice already given but wish her well

Hello

I think that you can get incapacity benefit even if you haven't paid your NI up to date, but it isn't much, but she could claim income support if they are on a low income.

If she is hospitalised then somebody (usually from Jobcentre plus even if it is to do with Social Security payments as well as Inland Revenue payments) will come and visit her in Hospital to sort out Benefits. Hospitals, certainly Mental Health wards - not sure about others - usually have an advisor for this sort of thing. She should speak to a nurse and ask about arranging this if she is due to remain in hospital for a little while.

And yes, she should get Incapacity Benefit as well as Income Support unless she has a partner working over 20 hrs (check on this!) in which case it will just be Inacapacity Benefit. She will have to have paid sufficient NI but if she has her own children then even if she hasn't been working then if she has been claiming her Child Benefit then she is covered anyway. As far as I know they look at the last 3 years contributions.

If she finds that she has long term complications as a result of the injury and is limited in her capacity yo work as a result then she should look at claiming Disability Living Allowance.

Hope this helps and not too waffly.

Biggest thing to remember: keep on asking - hospital wards are very busy and it is easy for a request like this to be overlooked or even for a nurse to be unsure of the procedure. Ask someone fairly senior if in doubt.

Hugs to her, what a bummer. I was in Hospital and away from my three children right through from Christmas Eve to after Boxing Day last year and so I totally sympathise.

Just wanted to add, not through any shame, but to prevent any confusion, that I was not in a mental health ward over christmas - it was for a baby related problem.

Thanks for all your replies!! I'm hoping to see her today (didn't get there before as we've had a crisis of our own to deal with - dh got sacked on Christmas Eve and we're trying to sort out an unfair dismissal case For now, will be living off my £546 a month and will also loose his company car - sorry, just ranting!! )

Anyway, JellyJelly said she's now been told she shouldn't work until her wedding in July so let's hope she can get some help eh!! Poor thing still doesn't have a clue what's going on - they seem a bit crap at deciding what they are doing and when she may be able to go home!

Thanks for all the best wishes for her, I'm sure after a week in hospital this will cheer her up

Hellybelly, please send my best wishes to Jellyjely, also sorry to hear about your husbands news.

My DH broke his leg a few years ago, they were unsure abiut what to do with it and eventually they decided to leave it to see if it would knit on it's own. six months later they then decided to pin it!(having dismissed this option earlier)
I think that what i'm trying to say to her is that if they even whisper the thought of leaving it to see what happens, she must push them for what she wants them to do.

Oh god, will mention that to her then as she's going to be off work long enough as it is!

Thanks for the best wishes, I will pass these on!

Hellybelly - so sorry to hear your news about your DH - good luck with sorting out the unfair dismissal case. Try not to let it consume your every waking moment!

Good luck...

Cheers Tan, I'll try not to worry but we were already worried due to the huge amount of debt and the fact that one of the banks asked for us to pay off £800 of that overdraft by 1st Jan. We tried and were going to use left over overdraft of another account to pay it BUT......our car (that was up for sale at the time) needed fixing and cost £560 so that buggered things up. So, we were in a mess anyway and this just adds to it. We worry more about dh getting a job as when he was made redundant 4 years ago (for the 3rd time, this time was just after our wedding and a week before Christmas - what is it with Christmas eh?? ), it took ages and ages and ages to get a job, eventually he got a temping job and then was made permanent a year and half later. I think he needs to take his date of birth off his CV as the one time he did this, he got an interview lined up. I really worry as I so want to carry on childminding but if dh struggles to get a job again, now that we have ds, I'd have no choice but to try and get a job myself and dh stay at home

Anyway, rant (again) over!! Nice to know I can come and have a good old moan on mumsnet!!

Tan - how's your new year looking?? You gave yourself until now so have you managed to line up enough work to keep you going??

Things are looking a little better than before; I have had an overnight enquiry for possibly 2-4 nights pw but the mum has phoned a few times after meeting me and keep telling her I can do the nights she is putting forward then I don't hear anything for a while so a Contract has not been signed yet. I am eagerly waiting for her to give me something more concrete as I am really relying on this for my survival and to keep current daytime mindees. I have got a possible mindee starting on 13 Jan - it's a SS placement and although haven't yet met the little mindee and his mum SS are keen to place here as I live near them - they are visiting with SS on Friday. There is a few other things in the pipeline but that's in another thread!!

If your DH isn't able to get another job, could you consider you and your DH taking on more children and doing it together? it would be such a shame if you had to give up but I do understand where you are coming from.

My sis works in a legal firm and knows a lot about unfair dismissal so feel free to ask anything if you cannot find info from elsewhere .

I'm SOOOOOOO pleased for you Tan, fingers crossed it all works out!! Look better than before anyway!

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to do overnight care Also, I'm only reg'd for 4 children in total (including ds) so can only have 3 mindees. I live in a shoebox so am not allowed any more mindees, even if dh registered (as I asked at my inspection!). Actually, I lie, it's not a shoebox, it's just not big enough (although it is fine for what I do!)

Tan - would you mind me emailing you with some details re: dh's situation in case your sis can give advice? Just that we're not having much luck at the moment, although it has been Christmas so not easy time! BTW, ACAS were crap when we spoke to them so don't suggest calling them

Thanks and good luck for Friday

Helly - I know of other minders living "in a shoebox" too, and they've been allowed more than 4 with an assistant. My dh and dds are all registered as assistants (got them registered as assistants because I could, not because I had to), and my dh has acted as occasional back-up sometimes if he's off work. I'm having four tomorrow because he's still on holiday (but he's more than likely to be hiding in the kitchen!)

Sorry, that was a bit of a ramble, but it might be worth asking OFSTED to look again at your request, just in case.

Also meant to say good luck with sorting out your dh's job situation, what a kick in the teeth to do this at Christmas

Theprisoner - I was told no by the Ofsted Inspector a couple of weeks ago so I would have thought it's still a no? You think it's worth asking anyway? They said he's allowed to assist with current numbers but they can't allow any more mindees

Having said that, not I'm already trying to fill one vacancy so not going to be much good atm

Yes Hellybelly - feel free to email me - sis not a Lawyer herself but works in a training capacity (HR) at a Law firm so has to know all the ins and outs so to speak. What a shame about Acas, someone I know also said they had had a crap experience with them too.

On the registration front; could you re-arrange the furniture in room/s that you use for childminding or lose a piece of furniture or two? Say if you had a unit, could you replace with shelves instead - just a thought.

I may have mentioned to you before about a another lady who contacted me about a 2 month old baby - she's called a few times and is finally coming around tomorrow evening - this placement would be for four days - so I am really keeping my fingers crossed

Helly - if it was only couple of weeks ago, then I guess not. However, if more space was created - as Tan says - maybe OFSTED would think again (am probably clutching at straws here). It's just that I've been able to take on children on an occasional basis (to cover appointments, shopping, another minder's holiday/sickness) when my dh/dds have been around, which all helps financially. Also, you're not having schoolchildren now - maybe that would make a difference.

Tan - good luck for tomorrow evening, would be a brilliant job!

Finally got to see jellyjelly yesterday afternoon, poor thing has a hell of a cast on She appreciated the kind messages so thanks for those!

Icemum - I told her what you said so it's now up to her! May have to remind her though as I'm not sure how much she took note of because of the drugs she's on. She now needs a bone scan as they said she shouldn't have that bad a break at her age!

Tan1959 - thanks so much, I will email you as we're getting mixed messages - may be no hope as he was there less than a year Dh is currently building marble madness for ds whilst mindee has a nap - he has his uses I suppose Best of luck tonight and don't forget to let us know how you get on!

Theprisoner - only thing in whole house that would make a difference is by getting rid of the dining table. It's a small round one and it has my pc on so I'd have to replace it with something (need it for web business). With no table there we would save about 1.5sq m of space but that's all. Not sure it would make a big enough difference? Will have a think about it though As for school children, that's the first thing we thought of so lets see what happens. Could only do after school though as I now have a morning run to pre-school in a different area.

Anyway, back to jellyjelly, I think she's going mad without internet access etc. so no doubt will be on here as soon as she gets home .

Thanks again!

Well I now have a three month old baby 4 days per week from next week - she is just so gorgeous I just cannot believe my luck and still have one more interview which will take me over my numbers on two afternoons so I have gone from one extreme to the other. There is a slight possibility that I can re-arrange one of my mindees to fit this one in, I'll have to see. I can't stop smiling

Oh Tan, I'm soooooooooo pleased!! Fingers crossed it all works out so you have filled your vacancies!! Keep smiling!!