Self employed and No sick pay what are we meant to do ?

[marshgame]

What happens for the self employed if they need to quarantine themselves as el t get paid (not an option for Dh to work from home)
What is in place to help others like us aibu to be worried

Posters discussing savings are also very amusing. As if everyone can afford to save

Fact is though, if you earn more than about £12K a year you've got to pay tax so you do have to save.

I wouldnt get a credit card yet, keep that option for if it actually happens. Too easy to start using it.

If you have any friends, contacts or neighbours, bear them in mind. I know I would drop off a food parcel (at the door!) if a friend were isolated and needed it.

@pedanticstyleguide yes, but it's not fun to explain to HMRC that you can't pay your tax bill because you've had to spend it on rent. I wouldn't call it savings, it's more of an outgoing.

It's one of the reasons why the s/e charge more than employees. There've been threads on here whinging about having to pay their cleaner/odd job man £15 per hour when they're minimum wage jobs. This exactly is the reason. They have to make provision for their own non-working time, i.e. holidays, sickness, admin, etc, hence they have to charge more than they'd earn if an employee with all the rights/benefits.

I’m severely immunocompromised

I’m not panicking at all. I’m still going where I need to go

Just take more precautions. Use masks. Gloves if you can. In public. Don’t go into overly crowded areas

All that jazz.

Yes this is the issue - we pay the rent then utility bills , buy food, put petrol in the car so he can drive for work and it’s pretty much gone there’s nothing left to save

Get tax credits not changed to IC yet so would that be what happens ? But that’s such a delay I’ve heard ?

You can apply for an advance once you've completed the online claim form/change of circs form, verified your ID (can be done by taking a photo of your passport using their app and takes minutes) and phoned to make an appointment (again, takes minutes unless they are very busy). I had an advance paid into my account within seconds of applying, the same day I applied for UC. So you wouldn't necessarily be waiting weeks - but you do have to replay it, plus you'd be stuck on UC rather than Tax Credits forevermore so I'd avoid if at all possible!

I’m a self employed tutor and could potentially lose a lot of income over the coming months if things develop for the worse. I’ve saved over the year to cover my tax bill and also extra to cover for being ill. Can one of the posters telling us ‘we should have saved’, tell me exactly how much I should have got together for a pandemic scenario. This is clearly could put a lot of financial pressure on self employed people - please show a bit of sympathy 😳

is there any chance you could get an evening / weekend job? That means your DH could look after your child but it would bring a bit extra that you could start saving.

You have a tax free allowance of around £12k a year too.

This is clearly could put a lot of financial pressure on self employed people

it will put a lot of financial pressure on everyone. I don't expect companies to pay full salaries for people being at home for weeks. It's just not sustainable. No one is dreaming that will happen.

And if me and my mum are quarantined then there is no way of paying 30 odd employees as the single licence payroll software is installed on the computer at work.

I would worry tbh if I got a job it would be something like shop or bar work and I can’t risk bringing anything back into the house. Dh works with about 20 people but it’s not a public role so he would have less chance of picking it up than me if I had to also work and I’m scared for dc

We've had a chat about it and the plan is for DH to keep working even if he's ill and only stop if he physically can't keep going

Same here but its what I've always done.

It's unfortunate I know, but there's not much you can do except for prepare and have a buffer for times like this.
Not only are me and dh both self employed but we work in music and entertainment. If they close our workplaces we lose business as well as income, immediately.

my sympathies I understand
lots of people almost forced into self employment by job centres and are hardly making enough to met minimum wage or above tax threshold it is better than JSA though, technically you need to be making NMW if you are not you are supposed to seek job with NMW will still carrying on the SE as you can't actually afford to stop being SE to drop down to JSA levels it is a vicious circle
this is why some of these people ( not suggesting OP's DH) are happier with cash as even 2% saved on banking charges for taking cards or cheques makes a difference for people making £150-200 a week self employed; being paid cash is an extra £3-4 ( a MN chicken) not wasted in banking fees at £150-200 a week
it is not tax or VAT avoidance as they are not earning enough or turning over enough for either
also cash is instant it may mean being able to buy food on the way home rather than 3days waiting for cheque to clear or chasing people up for paypal BACS or whatever,
it is true some of these SE businesses are not technically viable as not delivering NMW but painting 2 rooms a week for £180 is still better than £74 for JSA
@falcor40 Masks are really not much use, I'm an early retired dentist, masks stop physical debris ie the aerosol from drilling going on my skin up my nose etc or if I need to sneeze mid procedure it will catch it, it will not stop airborne viruses getting through washing hands properly with soap and hot water and avoid touching face eyes etc will achieve far far more, my colleagues still working say masks are on buying restrictions 3 boxes per week ( depending on number of dentists per practice) and they are single use items once splattered they become porous and useless there has been no change in advice that they are single use

I really hope this triggers an improvement in sickness pay and protection for everybody, or means the government have to make UC not involve the 5 week wait. It's really anxiety provoking all over really and I feel like we all and our governments have not been properly prepared. I think it is illuminating just how vulnerable many of us are economically to struggle with this virus. I hope it doesn't escalate, because I don't think we can cope with this on top of austerity, Brexit, zero hours, etc.

I totally get people earn very little but HMRC will always insist on getting its money - and then half again as they then take for the following tax year on account. I have worked freelance myself for the last year and I didn't save tax money to start with. However, I am in the fortunate position of (a) having savings (b) being able to live off my husband to some extent and (c) now earning enough to save for my tax bill.

And now I'm about to become employed again due to IR35. I only get 4 days full sick pay though and then it's SSP.

If you have paid enough NI you should be eligible for 'new style' ESA which you claim by calling the UC helpline. New style ESA is not UC and should not end your current claim for TC.

You can stay on WTC for up to 28 weeks of sickness.

The bottom line is loads of people will not be able to afford to self isolate so I doubt isolation measures are going to work very well. In fact a lot of people wilt mild or no symptoms because they cannot afford not to be paid their full wage or self employed earnings will just keep going and keep spreading it.