Stick situation regarding long term sick & buying a house/keeping up with payments

BarrelScraper

Mands wrote: »

How tall are you? What's your build in relation to your height? Are you clumsy? How many dislocations have you had?

I'm about 5ft11", late 20s. I fluctuate between 12-13st. Quite active. I'm not clumsy at all, just seemingly very unlucky. I've only ever had 1 dislocation that i know of (elbow - which required the op), have broken my ankle & both big toes, as well as stress fracture of the fibula on the same leg i broke my ankle.

Judith_W wrote: »

Unfortunately your work can dismiss you on capability grounds - that you are not capable of performing your role for 6 months, and will just pay you holiday, salary owing, then you would probably go onto JSA.

With your medical record and pending investigation, you would not get any insurance to cover you whilst you are off to cover the mortgage.

I strongly recommend you look for another less physical job, and PS it is now illegal for anyone to ask about your sickness record before employing you.

J

Thanks for your reply.

I guess i've just got to hope for the biggest favour going then, which doesn't look good.


I can't really talk to THE boss, as we don't have the best of relationships (doesn't look good for me so far), however since i have changed my attitude towards work which has been commented on by everyone except THE boss, i get along much better with the bigwigs that come under him.

In this case, if an operation was required, would you suggest that it'd be worth voicing my concerns to someone like the general manager (essentially second in command)? As in tell them i am concerned about my job security & that it's a scheduled 6 month recovery period. If i was to require surgery, i would also try (if possible) to have this during the companys "quiet time" to cause minimum disruption.

Mands

BarrelScraper wrote: »

I'm about 5ft11", late 20s. I fluctuate between 12-13st. Quite active. I'm not clumsy at all, just seemingly very unlucky. I've only ever had 1 dislocation that i know of (elbow - which required the op), have broken my ankle & both big toes, as well as stress fracture of the fibula on the same leg i broke my ankle.

That does sound unlucky. It might be worth some time trying to figure out whether there's an underlying condition that's contributing to this.

It wouldn't help with work, as they can certainly try to dismiss you on capability grounds, but if there is something that makes you more susceptible to breakages then you may be able to make adjustments to offset some.

ETA: Why are you running two MSE accounts?

Best of luck,
Mands

dacouch

Knock the football on the head

missbunbury

To be honest I wonder whether you might want to reconsider the plan to buy a house. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of it, there is very little help available to pay a mortgage if you are unable to do so yourself, and as others have mentioned you are unlikely to be able to protect yourself with insurance because you already have poor health. If in future you are renting and find yourself back on SSP, or worse, on JSA, you will probably get help paying your rent, but you're much less likely to get help with a mortgage.

I know it seems unfair (well, it is unfair) but I would personally be very reluctant to commit to buying if it seemed so likely that I would struggle to keep up a mortgage. One idea - could you look into these shared ownership schemes? As I understand it they involve paying rent for a percentage of the property and a smaller mortgage for the rest, I am not sure of the ins and outs but such an arrangement might offer more of a safety net? Somebody else will no doubt be able to say whether you could theoretically claim HB for the rent part? In which case, if you were able to work really hard to save a rainy day fund that would keep you going for a few months (and I'm assuming you are saving if you are planning to buy) you might find you could make it work in such a way that you weren't at risk of immediately losing your home if your health started playing up again.

princessdon

Investigate insurance - BUT any proior or known conditions would be need declared, but worth a phone call to see if they can cover (but probably not).

BarrelScraper

Regarding shared ownership & such ...

The plan has always been to get as big a deposit together as possible & then buy the house. Our aim was a 40% deposit on a £125k house ... so £48k deposit. We should just about be able to hit this target by the end of December. As we wont be moving literally 1st Jan, we should hit this before we move out.

The vast majority of this £48k is mine. I think of the top of my head i have about £35k myself right now with my partner having about £8k-9k. This doesn't mean that we're in well paid jobs or that we're not. It just means we've/i've saved quite well while living at home. We both earn approx the same per year (we were both on about £18k pa, although this past year her new job dipped her to £16.2k & in previous years i've been as low as about £12k due to the periods of sick leave mentioned). If we both put a solid 12 months in (she's brilliant - only 1 day off work in 3 years) then she gets £16.2k & i get £18-£19k (with overtime). So it's taken some time to save this money.

The plan was a 20yr term, owning the house by the time i turn 50, not wanting to be paying it off beyond this & certainly not into retirement.

I know plans can & sometimes have to change though. We thought we'd be hitting the market just about right with it being a buyers market these days, as opposed to when my partner wanted us to move out years ago before the world came crashing down.

dacouch wrote: »

Knock the football on the head

Was it not this thread where i said i have?

I've not played football since i had my knee op. Not only have i not played since then, i haven't RAN since then - because my knee has worn. It's not worth the risk to me any more. I don't want to risk time off work, but i don't want to risk further damage to my knee. I'm getting older & looking after my body more - as i said, i'm careful, just unlucky.

I spoke to my GP recently who said i can try football if i like, but my knee will wear & i risk blowing it out. I told him i wont be doing that & i'm not even running. He said i can run on a treadmill, but it'll wear a bit quicker than the normal man. He was really trying to talk me into it i felt, but i'm not even doing that. I literally don't want to risk it at all. So i'm taking the stationary bike & cross trainer approach - little stress on the joints.

I was trying to build muscle too, again in order to be healthier (such as if i build up my quads, it should help with my knee stabilizing). Look where that's landed me.

CFC

BarrelScraper wrote: »

I know what you're saying, but the funny/surprising thing is that my job isn't actually aggravating my shoulder, which is also why i would be hesitant for an operation.

I have changed the way i do things: i don't stretch for the back seat on the car, i get out & open the rear doors. I don't open big doors at work pushing with my right shoulder, i now lead with my left, which is harder as i'm weak with my left, being a 100% righty, but it's doable. I tuck my shoulder in when lifting so my arm isn't stretched. I can handle 25kg weights at waist height without issue. I can mount machinery as i hoist myself with my left instead of my right.

I would've thought the injury would've interfered with work a lot, but it surprisingly hasn't. It's outside of work & end of the day/whilst sleeping.



Thanks for the feedback, even though it wasn't what i was wanting to hear lol.

We would be looking at buying, yes, as i don't want to be paying a house off into retirement. Buying was always the plan.


Out of interest, what payment would i be due if work released me due to being unable to do my job / didn't give me the chance to recover (as said, it's a 6 month recovery timeframe according to much googling).?

Would it JUST be accrued holiday pay, nothing more, or would i be entitled to more?
And then would it be jobseekers *shudder* or anything other than/in addition to that?
.

You'd be entitled to your contractual notice and any accrued holiday pay. That's all. And then it's jobseekers, providing they do not sanction you for dismissal - you'd need to ask someone else about that, whether they would or not.
And after 6 months, if you're living with a partner, it's NO jobseekers. She or he is expected to keep you, and although there are benefits available she would have to be on a VERY low wage for her to get that.

BarrelScraper

CFC wrote: »

You'd be entitled to your contractual notice and any accrued holiday pay. That's all. And then it's jobseekers, providing they do not sanction you for dismissal - you'd need to ask someone else about that, whether they would or not.
And after 6 months, if you're living with a partner, it's NO jobseekers. She or he is expected to keep you, and although there are benefits available she would have to be on a VERY low wage for her to get that.

I would assume that £16k wouldn't be low enough then.

Just out of interest - how is this likely to be perceived by potential employers?

For example...

If i go in work tomorrow & plant one on my boss, get the sack, it's a bit of a no brainer as to how this is going to go down with any future potential employer.

However if i'm 'released' due to surgery recovery time, then essentially i've been sacked just like the previous example, but for different reasons. Just wondered how it's likely to be perceived?

And i'm assuming it's better (as far as pay-day goes) to be released than to jump ship yourself?

nearlyrich

BarrelScraper wrote: »

I have recently torn "something" in my shoulder. I don't know how, or when. It has just progressed from an occasional niggle to a constant problem. I am scheduled to see the physio which should help identify the problem better.

On line research is great but you can end up suffering from some terrible diseases and ailments, I had your symptoms after a car crash I lost the use of my right arm for anything that involved reaching and turning my arm, it was diagnosed as frozen shoulder and a couple of cortisone injections, lots of pain killers and a course of physio got back to almost 100%. Go and have the tests and if you need an op you need an op, no point worrying about it till you know for sure. Good luck;)

BarrelScraper

nearlyrich wrote: »

On line research is great but you can end up suffering from some terrible diseases and ailments, I had your symptoms after a car crash I lost the use of my right arm for anything that involved reaching and turning my arm, it was diagnosed as frozen shoulder and a couple of cortisone injections, lots of pain killers and a course of physio got back to almost 100%. Go and have the tests and if you need an op you need an op, no point worrying about it till you know for sure. Good luck;)

True, but i find a lot of people fall into the following:

* those who say the gym &/or exercise is bad for you. These people [from my own personal experience] tend to be (but are not limited to) those who NEVER exercise, are generally overweight, smoke & live an unhealthy lifestyle. As i say, it's not limited to these types of people, but those who've said the above to my face have all fell into one or all of that description. They seem to come out with it as a way of justifying their unhealthy lifestyle. Again, i'm NOT saying that ALL people who come out with this remark are like that.

* those who say you shouldn't research your problems online because the flowchart will end up with you suffering some terminal illness. Yes, if you're daft enough to not use an element of common sense, then i agree with these people. I have however, actually been & seen a medical professional who has told me i HAVE torn something in my shoulder. Yes there's a chance he could be wrong, but the evidence seems to point towards him being wrong as unlikely. The question really seems to be WHAT is torn & to WHAT degree.

To then satisfy my own curiosity, i have researched exercises which can help aid something like a torn rotator cuff. I'm not lifting big weights for this - i'm hitting the yellow theraband. I've also researched the operation procedure. I may or may not require an operation, but learning about the procedure doesn't harm anything. It's when you get carried away it can become dangerous.


It's also difficult to see how someone is meaning what they say when it's just text on a screen. Just to point out, i didn't take offense to your post & nor do i mean to cause offense by mine.