Anyone else terrified about not being able to work due to CV?

[JuanSheetIsPlenty]

Whether that’s due to school being closed, or clients cancelling, or me catching CV. I’m self employed. No work means no income at all. I’m just about meeting my bills now. If I don’t work I’m screwed. I rent privately. I don’t get any housing benefit. I’m getting really worried now.

I’m a teacher and selfishly terrified of the schools closing and me being unpaid for a long period of time. DP is self employed so won’t get paid if off, and I’m the main breadwinner.

I assume that pets starved in Wuhan because their owners went away for the Spring Festival and then weren't allowed to return. The supermarkets were open.
The situation in Wuhan has improved now, and they are expecting the children to be able to return to school fairly soon, apparently.

For private schools, a large part of cost will be staff costs. Debt related costs are already provided for with recently announced industry wide coronavirus debt relief. Staff won't be paid, debt relief is available, therefore fees will be able to be frozen. If the state mandates business to continue to pay staff, working parents should still be in a position to pay fees.

Private schools, as always, will be fine.

@PicsInRed - What industry wide coronavirus debt relief?

No one has mentioned this to me. In fact, there has been no advice for schools and childcare providers at all. No, I tell a lie, the DfE have a helpline. But it’s useless, and the people manning it know less than me.

Then I overdid it with the polish and sneezed. He nearly fainted

I don’t think it’s hysteria to address the issue of being without an income. I don’t have any savings. If I don’t work for a week I would be without electric by the following week, I don’t have a stocked store cupboard, I buy food week by week so we’d be struggling by the week after. Rent wouldn’t be paid. obviously I wouldn’t be immediately homeless but I only moved into this house in April last year so if my landlord decides not to renew my lease in a month due to no payment then out I go. That’s the reality of it. Not hysteria.

So I’ve just looked this up.

Apparently the banks will be offering loans so that small businesses can carry on paying their staff.

That’s nice of them.

So in other words, the staff will get paid, the landlords will get paid, but the nursery or private school owner will acquire 100 grand or so of debt.

Meanwhile, the insurance companies get off scot free.

In what world would any business owner sign up for that?

Individuals and businesses will be able to access debt repayment relief for a period of time - announced a couple of days ago.

In Asia, for e.g., this has involved individuals with mortgages being allowed to pay only the interest on their mortgages for a period of 6 months, up to a year.

@luckylavender have you ever been to one? Or had your kids at one? It literally happens all the time. They usually just arrange payment by direct debit or say you can pay at the next invoice/whatever. In instances where people loose jobs/die they try to allocate bursary funds where possible. If they didn’t tolerate late payment they’d loose a lot of pupils.

@EYProvider most reputable private schools are charities these days so don’t have ‘owners’ in the sense that you’re thinking of.

We would just about cope as DW is the breadwinner and she can WFH. However if her company loses customers then there will be less work for her... terrifying to think about.

@Daffodil101 you’re absolutely right. It’s totally alarmist. Hard to believe this is the same country that survived 2 world wars and people now thinking the whole country is going to collapse because nurseries and schools might close for a few weeks.
Does no one have contingency? Is every business running so close to the edge that a week of two without customers will cause them to fail? A good business plan always includes adequate contingency.

Oh how I wish I was in a position to be so smug.

I’m not terrified as such but I know it will have a big knock-on effect on my business.

I’m a freelancer and can work from home, but many of my clients will sooner or later be affected by the impact of either illness, closures, or simply lack of consumer confidence.

I then contribute to this in turn because my financial future is uncertain so I’m putting off major purchases, travel etc.

I’m lucky enough to be able to absorb an unexpected month or so without pay, but not much more than that. I’ve been ill since November so haven’t been working full time.

We shall see. I try not to worry (it never seems to help) but yes I agree that there is serious cause for concern and I’m in a relatively fortunate position.

I fee angry that Fly.be was allowed to go under. It doesn’t really affect me, but still. Guess they should have been too big to fail?

Is every business running so close to the edge that a week of two without customers will cause them to fail?

Ask Fly.be. It’s not having a bad week or two that’s the problem, it’s having that coming after months or years of barely getting by.

@Reginabambina - Some private schools are charities. Lots aren’t, and nearly all nurseries are privately run.

In the childcare industry, everyone is running close to the edge.

Yes it the knock on effect is what will impact people far longer than the virus itself.

Yes @Reginabambina otherwise I would not have been so certain. My DC went to quite a famous one & they were not lenient on people at all. I have lots of evidence.

BritWife, the country didn't stop for WW1&2. Life went on, as it had to and as it must now.

Even 1850s homesteaders had to work and trade. Society is interdependent and totally collapses if everyone stops leaving the house.

The only "panickers" are those considering locking themselves in for months.

Most of us intend to calmly - and prudently - carry on.

Most of us intend to calmly - and prudently - carry on.

Bit hard to do so when you have no work.

@luckylavender that’s really surprising. I’ve never heard of it becoming an issue until a couple of terms fees are unpaid (presumably because they have a terms fees on account from the initial deposit).

I'm not terrified as such, but as a single parent who only recently started a minimum wage job for an agency, it wouldn't be great. My DS is 17, so at least childcare wouldn't be an issue.

if you're forced to close, is it in your contract that parents don't need to pay

You can't charge for a service you are not providing. It's not the parent's fault if you can't get (enough) insurance.

My nursery had the same clause, but only for 3 days, and then their insurance kicked in (there was a flood). It was only closed for 3 days in the end.

There was a post a week or so ago on another thread about a childminder who said she would continue to charge. You can't do that I am afraid. Force majeure clauses are eg in this context to stop the parent suing the CM/nursery for the cost of emergency childcare but do not mean the service provider can shrug their shoulders, say no service but I am keeping your money.

However, if you eg run a hotel and a guest chooses to cancel you can keep their deposit if your terms allow for it and you can't rebook the room. You can't keep the deposit if you cancel though.

I'm a childminder.

I'm not sure what would happen if schools close. I have the children I already regularly look after and would be prepared to have those children some of the time but I'd also have my own 2 children home. I

I'd also not be keen to take on any new children as I'd be very busy anyway and wouldn't want to increase my infection risk taking on new families I know nothing about.

If I have to close it would be very awkward in terms of finances. I have insurance which does actually pay if a childminder has to close due to a notifyable illness. However, the policy then goes on to list all notifyable illnesses. Corona virus obviously isn't listed as it didn't really exist when the policy was renewed. (Although that was only in December). The insurance company has confirmed they will not pay out.

I can understand the insurance company as I'm pretty sure the potential level of payout could bankrupt them. I however would struggle with no income. I'm really not sure what I would do.

I'm already in this position.

I'm self employed, main breadwinner. I'm a freelancer and many of the financial services companies are putting new work on hold as they batten down the hatches and focus on keeping the lights on for the next few months.

Next week I'll be doing what I can to find some kind of work but we are high earners and have stupidly been high spenders too so we are in a bad position.

We are also looking to see what we can sell on eBay from the house, whether we can go onto an interest only mortgage/take a payment holiday, whether we can claim UC, etc.

UC wouldn't go anywhere near our bills though.