Financial help for self employed whilst off ill

[evedawn]

My self employed (registered, pays VAT etc) husband is due to have surgery shortly which will mean he will be unable to work for a minimum of 6 weeks, (poss up to 10 wks) . Is there any sort of government financial assistance he can get whilst off as he is the main breadwinner and this will make meeting our monthly bills impossible. I work part time and am not on a very good wage.

[jollygreen]

I'm sorry to say this but no, absoluitely nothing.

I'm self employed too and after a colleague of ine had a heart attack and was off his work for 6 months (!) I took out income protection insurance. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll be able to get this to cover your husbands time off as it will be classed as a pre-existing condition.

Will he be able to do any work from home while he is recuperating?

Anyway, hope it goes ok and he recovers fully and quickly.

JG

[THECORBYLOON]

There are a couple of state Benefits he may qualify for, Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Income Support(IS)-if he qualifies for both he will get only the higher amount. The IB is paid to those who are incapable of work and is based on National Insurance; IS is a means tested benefit and won't be payable if you are working more than 24 hours per week (they will also look at yir savings and other income.)

Best thing to do is contact yir local Jobcentre Plus and tell them the circumstances and they'll advise you properly.

[buildersmate]

Its one of the few benefits of being a limited liability company - as an employer you can claim statutory sick pay. The downside is the need to pay employers as well as employees NI. But I guess he's not limited.

[buildersmate]

Sorry, for employer, read employee.

[NiceCupOfTea]

I don't suppose you are a member of a Trade Union? They will have a hardship fund, if you are, that you can apply to for financial help.

Otherwise, it's only state benefits.

If you go to the CAB they will help all they can.

As it's only short term, contact the people you are paying bills to.

Utilities will need paying but often come to an agreement for short-term smaller payments.

With some things like loans the companies should reduce your payments temporarily if you put your written request in reasonable terms � e.g. we can only pay you �2 for the next two months, but will then increase to monthly payments of �X, returning to full repayments of �X by (date). If they don't accept your offer, then complain to the managers of the institutions you have the loans with in writing.

As long as you do requests for reduced payments in writing and get receipts for the letters (i.e. hand them in to the companies in question by hand and get photocopies with date stamps for your records so they can�t �lose� them) they tend to be reasonable.

Don't stress too much - just contact all would be debtors involved in advance in writing and get their written consent and you'll be OK.

[evedawn]

thanks for all of your advice - sorry that i didn't get a chance to log on and say ta before today...:-(