Husband off sick and no sick pay. Ideas needed to survive it

Persephone_Mulberry

Hi

We're just working on getting out of debt and making savings but my husband has just been diagnosed with severe depression. He's been off for 3 weeks unpaid so far and I am starting to panic about how we are going to cope with this.

We only have £370 so far in savings and a 3 year old child to consider.

I can't really cut bills so I suppose advice on cutting other spends, ideally without us being completely miserable and also nutritionally deficient!

Gazzafatcityboy

Good morning...


Sad to wake up to a post like this.


I need to ask. Erm why isn't he getting any sick pay at all?


Second of all, the priorities are your rent, council tax and food first. So if any other bills go unpaid so be it. The creditors will have to accept it at this point.


Can you post an SOA, so that we can see if there is anywhere you can save at all?


Lastly do you work yourself?


Regards,


Gary

HappyMJ

Persephone_Mulberry wrote: »

Hi

We're just working on getting out of debt and making savings but my husband has just been diagnosed with severe depression. He's been off for 3 weeks unpaid so far and I am starting to panic about how we are going to cope with this.

We only have £370 so far in savings and a 3 year old child to consider.

I can't really cut bills so I suppose advice on cutting other spends, ideally without us being completely miserable and also nutritionally deficient!

Can he claim Employment and Support Allowance?

If he's got enough NI contributions and he cannot get SSP despite being in employment he can get that benefit even if you earn too much as well.

Housing benefit can pay the rent if your income is too low.

Council Tax Reduction can pay the council tax if your income is too low.

engineer_amy

If his employer is not paying him SSP for whatever reason, they need to give him a SSP1 form. Tell him to get on and request this asap. Then he can apply for ESA.


Are you working? is there anything you can do to increase the income, even if its only temporarily?

Persephone_Mulberry

Ah yes sorry, he'll get ssp which i thends up around...£400-500 pcm?

Still about £700 less than usual:-/

Will try and log on computer shortly to share soa.

engineer_amy

SSP is £88.45 per week, with first 3 days unpaid. If things are tight, he might ask to use some of his holiday allowance (of course it will depend on employer policies)

Persephone_Mulberry

Here we go. First is our SOA with our usual budget attached - obviously that's not going to be happening in July...


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1088
Partners monthly income after tax....... 356
Benefits................................ 233
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1677
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 651
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 152
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 34.81
Telephone (land line)................... 15.99
Mobile phone............................ 60.37
TV Licence.............................. 12.13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 12
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 17.93
Car Insurance........................... 19
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 300
Other child related expenses............ 50
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 16.19
Buildings insurance..................... 22.98
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 27.74
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 33
Haircuts................................ 30
Entertainment........................... 80
Holiday................................. 65
Emergency fund.......................... 70
Total monthly expenses.................. 2185.14

Assets
Cash.................................... 372
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 400
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 300772

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 146241...(651)......2.84
Total secured & HP debts...... 146241....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................9000......135.......5
Total unsecured debts..........9000......135.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,677
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,185.14
Available for debt repayments........... -508.14
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 135
Amount short for making debt repayments. -643.14
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 300,772
Total HP & Secured debt................. -146,241
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,000
Net Assets.............................. 145,531
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Persephone_Mulberry

The second is the one with everything I can think to take off taken off. Realistically I don't think we can spend £0 on our daughter this month (she is busy growing out of everything) or £0 on entertainment as we will go completely mad... :-\ I've left £20 in birthday funds as it's my birthday this month and hubs will want to do Something for me - and I think making him super sad about not being able to buy me a present will not help with the depression!


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1088
Partners monthly income after tax....... 356
Benefits................................ 233
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1677
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 651
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 152
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 34.81
Telephone (land line)................... 15.99
Mobile phone............................ 60.37
TV Licence.............................. 12.13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 12
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 17.93
Car Insurance........................... 19
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 300
Other child related expenses............ 50
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 16.19
Buildings insurance..................... 22.98
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 27.74
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 60
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1912.14

Assets
Cash.................................... 372
House value (Gross)..................... 300000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 400
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 300772

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 146241...(651)......2.84
Total secured & HP debts...... 146241....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................9000......135.......5
Total unsecured debts..........9000......135.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,677
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,912.14
Available for debt repayments........... -235.14
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 135
Amount short for making debt repayments. -370.14
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 300,772
Total HP & Secured debt................. -146,241
Total Unsecured debt.................... -9,000
Net Assets.............................. 145,531
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.


All I can really think is to start working out some seriously reduced food bills. Which is fun when I am veggie and he is coeliac! But probably doable, will just need some serious cooking commitment...


Any other ideas incredibly appreciated. I'm assuming we can't really claim for anything with it being just one month? Although I will certainly be updating our information with the child tax credit people...

Persephone_Mulberry

Thanks for the reply. Re my working - yes I do work 3 days a week. I can't increase my hours to any serious extent, but I am helping on our out of hours phone line occasionally (to the extent I can) but the most I am allowed to do is 2 hours a week.


I do also have one other side job but it's very occasional and no opportunities before September at the moment :-(

Persephone_Mulberry

engineer_amy wrote: »

SSP is £88.45 per week, with first 3 days unpaid. If things are tight, he might ask to use some of his holiday allowance (of course it will depend on employer policies)

Thank you for that. Urgh.
Re holiday, he could but honestly I think that I'd like him to have some left for later in the year and - if it takes him longer to get better, I'd rather get on top of it now (how to cope) rather than prolong the pain, if you see what I mean.

HappyMJ

You should with that amount of equity take a payment holiday on your mortgage which will free up £651 per month and balance the budget.

You could choose to just pay the interest of £346 per month which will stop the amount you owe from increasing.

Talk to your mortgage provider. They will help.