Self Employed & Screwed

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

I can't help but feel the self employed are being ignored in this self isolation & sick pay matter. For me, I'm in a situation where

• I'm not eligible for SSP as I'm self employed (not that SSP would cover even my rent, let alone council tax etc)
• I'm in the first year of a start up business, so I don't have significant reserves of cash
• I can't get accident / sickness income protection insurance due to a pre-existing condition that affects every part of my body to a greater or lesser extent
• if I don't leave the house and see the public face to face then nothing gets sold and not a penny comes in.
• most of my income comes from large scale public events, which could shortly be banned, as they have been in France and elsewhere. Organisers may or may not return pitch fees. Most of the rest of my income comes from private parties, which could also be cancelled.
• It's a highly seasonal business, with summer being peak season; it would be one thing if this happened in winter but a week of trading in summer is worth a month in the winter
• I'm renting privately, so if I can't pay the rent due to the above, I'll get evicted and I'll find it impossible to rent a new place when my business has just folded and I have a dog. The dog cannot be rehomed as he has behavioural problems.

What the fuckity fuck am I meant to do if told to self isolate? People like me are genuinely screwed. I honestly think that if I thought I'd come into contact with someone who has coronavirus I'd have to avoid seeking medical advice for fear of being told to self isolate and hence losing my home.

Plus - if you are desperate, you will stop thinking that your dog is as important as a child.

I was thinking about offering daytime babysitting pro tem if primary schools close, as I have a rolling DBS certificate. Not all self-employed people have, though.

Only on mumsnet could somebody who is self employed post about losing money if they have to self isolate and be told to get a job.

Stupidity at its finest.

She complained about losing money because of people not booking social events.

Anyway, I'm self-employed, have lost my main source of earnings because of the Corona virus, and have found minimum wage work I do from home. Doesn't matter if I have to self-isolate. Maybe the OP could do some research.

The very first line of the OP

can't help but feel the self employed are being ignored in this self isolation & sick pay matter.

And it’s true. Get a job is a laughable solution, even without the issue of potential self isolation. Do people have any idea how difficult it is, how long you go without money, how self employed people often are such because the flexibility aspect is the one thing, rather ironically, they cannot be flexible about?

Getting a job is about as easy as buying hand sanitiser right now

I’m in the same boat OP. It really sucks! I’ve got enough savings and credit card to live for about 6 months without working. After that I’d have nothing and no one to help me

Anyway, I'm self-employed, have lost my main source of earnings because of the Corona virus, and have found minimum wage work I do from home. Doesn't matter if I have to self-isolate. Maybe the OP could do some research.

What makes you think OP hasn’t? Just because they have posted on mumsnet you assume that is the extent of their efforts?

Perhaps you could be so good as to share how you managed to switch from self employment to employed home work as if you were putting the kettle on.

It's the same for us all, it will be dire.
We stand to lose millions, luckily we're ltd, but will no doubt have to start again when it's all over.
I'm trying not to think about it, and doing what I can to lessen the impact.
Checking your insurance is up to date for everything you possibly can is something we all should have/be doing.

I was already doing some of the home based work. I've now increased it. Always good to have a 2nd string when self-employed.

SE or not, I dont know many people who could survive on SSP.

I'm hoping that sick pay will be available, I don't see why not, we go through PAYE the same as somebody being employed by any other company.
You could set up as a Ltd and pay yourself a wage, then be entitled to sick pay.

I'm freaking out about this. Both dh and I are self employed. I've already lost £240 a month due to CV and pray this doesn't increase.
We are a low income family and live hand to mouth as it is

You could set up as a Ltd and pay yourself a wage, then be entitled to sick pay.

As a director of a company you still may not be entitled to ssp, it depends on the size of the business and whether you are given a contract of employment for a specific role with in the business. A business the size op descrbes may not be big enough for this as they are usually large companies where directors take on specific roles.
I'm a director of my own company and whilst we draw a wage through payee we don't have specific roles as we muck in and run the business our roles are very hack of all trade types. It's quite complicated.

Jack of all trades.

The companies where contracts of employment work for directors are usually made up of multiple directors with many staff beneath them warranting them needing contracts. Then they qualify for all statutory rights.

*I won't get universal Credit....
*
If you pay rent and do not have your income coming in and are forced to self isolate you are not required to look for work it has already been agreed that this will be regarded as sick.

Universal Credit is a top up on wages if you have them and replaces wages if you don't have them.

Everyone can put their own circumstances into a good benefit calculator such as turn2us.org and find out what entitlements they have for rent, personal allowance, child allowance, childcare , mortgage relief disability. Play around with it to suit the various scenarios that you could be facing.

To my surprise. Despite earning £37500 and only having one school age child ... and rent of £975 (no disabilities for either self or dc) I am now receiving £220 a month. I found this out by accident because I would never have imagined I would be entitled.
Everyone should check their own entitlement because where you live and how much your housing (normally rent) cost- makes a HUGE difference.

You could always sign up for the medical trials, not particularly you OP, but anyone desperate.
They will be offering 3.5k to be injected with the stuff.

@Devlesko Not a chance!

Patchwork

Thanks but when I said I will not get universal credit i said it because I know I will not get universal credit.

You could always sign up for the medical trials, not particularly you OP, but anyone desperate.
They will be offering 3.5k to be injected with the stuff.

Is there a legitimate source for this information?

Similar shitty canoe here; we run a business (technically DH self employed for various reasons, we were going to go ltd in April) but we also have staff to worry about. If we're forced to close we won't be able to pay them, we just don't have the reserves.

metro.co.uk/2020/03/09/people-paid-3500-infected-coronavirus-find-cure-12370003/

I wasn't being serious btw, but no doubt some will.

Yes, me too
I'm terrified. I've just taken a loan to grow my business, not getting any customers/ income to pay the loan.

I had 2 years expenses saved all in stocks and shares...

Really got my goat when someone said I should take the rough with the smooth. The rough???

We do plenty of contingency planning, have cashflow projections coming out the wazoo, but full closure for months is beyond our capabilities. I spent a bit of time looking through accounts of some other providers too and it looks like we're all in a similar boat. Most don't have 1 months spare staff wage bill. It's a low margin industry so it takes a long time to build up any sort of substantial reserve.

Apparently in Italy there is a mortgage holiday for those in quarantined areas.