I'm self employed, pressure to carry on working, need advice please.

[peoplepleaser1]

I'm a professional dog walker. I stopped working after the announcement on Monday. I now have zero income, and am going to struggle immensely. I anticipate that any self employed measures will not help me as I've been going only 13 months so will have insufficient financial records to prove a claim.

Stopping work felt like the right thing to do but I am in the minority in my profession and many other local walkers have carried on.

Some customers have been great, others have pointed out that I'm absolutely allowed to carry on working and are clearly pissed off with me, one has threatened to find a new walker (a customer worth over £2500 per year to me).

Initially I was confused as to whether I was even allowed to carry on. I feel the responsible thing to do is to stop, but now it's clear that I'm allowed to work because now that it is clear that the government is allowing non critical workers to work if they genuinely cannot work from home and can observe social distancing.

I know there has been a great deal of debate, but I can now categorically say I am allowed to work (see attached image from UGov official document which is up to date as of today), and I don't know what to do.

Please don't turn this into a thread about the official guidance because although lots of people think non- essential workers have been told to stop working, rightly or wrongly that really really really is not the case.

I have to consider if I've made the wrong call and should be working.

I'm thinking though, that maybe Boris' next move will be to ban all non essential work in which case I can sit tight and carry on staying at home, as I'll be stopped anyway.

Do people think it's likely that non essential work will be banned anytime soon, or should I be working?

I think that you should follow the government guidelines, so you should be working. Obviously the guidelines may change in future but that's the current situation. You can do your best to ensure contactless hangovers.

Thank you
I'm teetotal so hangovers can be avoided.

I’m a housekeeper. I’m not on the list and I’m self employed. For now I’m working. Until I’m told other wise. I would keep working as I would say you were allowed. Not sure where u stand on the whole being outside , one hour social distancing thing though

@Drivemybluecar I can observe social distancing without issue.

The rule Ee being outside is not set to an hour, it's set to one 'time', but as my work requires me to spend most of the day outside I'm assuming it's ok.

Bump

Your choice with what you feel safe with. Thats the plus side of being self employed, you get to decide what is the best thing to do. Yes you might loose customers, but if you feel its best then that's the price you pay for that choice.

Personally I think dog walkers could really help keep more people indoors. But I would completely understand if a dog walker would rather not work. No right or wrong choice in my opinion.