Self Employed Unable to Work

german_keeper

Hello, hoping someone might be able to help. Apologies for long post, trying to include all relevant info.

Apart from Child Benefit and the basic tenner a week or so in Child Tax Credits when the kids were younger I have no experience of claiming benefits. Back in the 1990s I did however work for several years as an Adjudication Officer on Family Credit, ICA and DLA.

My 20 year old daughter is a self employed make up artist but has broken her ankle and is unable to work. She is single and lives with us, she has a boyfriend and occasionally stays at his house but not in anything remotely like a "Living Together as Husband and Wife" situation based on the law as it was back in the day. She has about £3,500 in savings. She pays her NI annually, and since she started her business has paid for 16/17 and 17/18. She hasn't earned enough to pay tax yet but I suspect she won't do for 18/19 bur the way her business is growing may do in 19/20 tax year. I help her with her "accounts" which are very simple and we are in the process of collating 18/19.

She broke her ankle 2 days ago, and is in plaster and quite immobile. We are going back to the hospital a week today and all we have from the docs is that she can't do anything but rest up at least till next Friday and they think it will take up to 2 months to be right. She has provisionally cancelled all clients in the next 2 months to allow them to make other arrangements, but we have no real idea how long she will be out of action for.

"Don't worry love, your old dad will be able to sort out your benefits for you no problem, it'll be a walk down memory lane, just let me have a look on Tinternet". Good Lord, what on earth has happened in the last 20 years!!

Anyway as a starter for ten I have just used a calculator I found on Tinternet, entered her circumstances and it says she isn't entitled to anything. Is this correct? Am I flogging a dead horse? Can anyone suggest any specific benefit I can look into in a bit more depth?

Thanks

calcotti

Based on her NI contributions from April 2016 to march 2018 she should be eligible for 'new style' ESA https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance

This is not means tested. She will need a Fit Note from GP in order to claim. She will be paid £73.10/week while her capability for work is assessed.

Alternatively she can claim Universal Credit, which is means tested, but the claim process for ESA is more straightforward.

If she is found to have Limited capability for Work and Work Related Activity she would get more money from the 4th month of her claim and UC would pay more than ESA. However, in the case of a broken leg I don't think this would apply and, in any case, it sounds as if she hopes to be better before three months has passed.

Note that if she applies for ESA she can backdate the claim to the date of the accident provided she can get a Fit Note to cover this period (some GPs will do backdated Fit Notes, others will not).

I don't understand why the calculators would be sowing that she is not entitled to anything.

german_keeper

Thanks for that Calcotti, just what I need. Possibly my googling and searching skills were the problem. I thought CAB site was the obvious place to look, searched "self employed sick pay" and all that came up were a couple of entries on self employment in general and then sick pay for employed people. Then Google with same search gave me a site called Turn2Us or something like that and I used the calculator on there. Thanks again