Self Employed and Injured

[Moo9]

Hi All,

Long time reader (7 years in fact!) but first post believe it or not, I feel bad my first post is asking for something but I'm really after some advice.

A friend of mine broke his leg quite badly yesterday. He is a self employed photographer/art designer and lives with a roommate.

I'm looking today at what help might be available for him for the duration of his break (3-4 Months), in terms of sick pay etc.

Speaking to Citizens Advice and JCP today has uncovered 3 options;

Employment Suppot Allowance
Housing Benefit
Reduced Council Tax

Does anyone have any experiance with things like this, if so do you have any advice? Any other options or avenues?

Appreciate the help guys.

[Eric Mc]

He will be entitled to absolutely NOTHING from an employer - for the simple reason he doesn't have one. That is, after all, one of the clear distinctions of being "Self Employed".

Did he have any sort of insurance to cover such eventualities?

When you are running your own business, having insurance of this sort might be a good thing.

[ewenm]

Yep, his business insurances/critical illness cover/etc should cover him for things like this (as always READ THE SMALL PRINT!). If he doesn't have insurances then he was taking a big risk.

As you've found, the CAB will be able to advise any benefits he may be able to claim.

[elanfan]

Was he responsible for the leg break - if not then a potential claim and he could probably get interim payments to tide him over.

No help now but he needs PHI (Permanent Health Insurance)to cover illness etc when away from work.

[Moo9]

Maybe going to be tougher than we thought then.

I suspect he has no insurance, and the injury was a sports injury with arguably nobody to blame.

I'll keep digging, thanks for the input folks.

[Eric Mc]

What type of sports injury?

If it was a team sport the team might have an insurance policy. I used to help out with a soccer club in Ireland (it is a while ago) and we had a player break his leg. We were able to make a claim on the team's insurance policy.