Are we getting all the help we can?

poppy12345

Happy_Sloth said:

poppy12345 said:

You say you're shielding as a family so taking a 2nd job is not likely to happen. Have you or your partner received the shielding letter from the NHS advising you to shield?

 No we haven't but our father has and as we are his full time carers and he simply can not survive without us going into his house daily, we have made the decision to shield to keep him safe.  We have tried to get other outside help for him but we can't get him the level of care he requires. 

You can still care for your father without the need to shield your whole family from the outside world. People actually work and live with vulnerable people and they have had no option to work through the whole of the lockdown. They do so by sticking to strict hygene rules when going home from work. You could still care for your father and find other work as well. This isn't just going to go away over night and we are going to have to learn to live a new "normal" life for quite sometime.

Happy_Sloth

I am looking for work, i'm just not having much look. I had 2 interviews last week got rejected from both.. 
The first said they thought i would be bored. (Bored.. yes.. but fed also yes!) 
The second said while they thought i could do the job they wanted someone who was committed to the role long term. Essentially they could see i'd been in a more senior/better paid roles before and figured i was looking for something temporary and would bail when things improved .. which is of course true but i did try and convince them i really wanted to do it. 

justwhat

Uni - just do your best to estimate earnings with the facts you have.
Also are you son's aware uni will not be the same as last term, eg social distancing , remote learning etc
You business - Is it time for a career change? You said the business was not doing great before covid , will it get any better?  As others have said there is the BBL loan, but it has to be paid back and is just more debt.

suki1964

poppy12345 said:

Happy_Sloth said:

poppy12345 said:

You say you're shielding as a family so taking a 2nd job is not likely to happen. Have you or your partner received the shielding letter from the NHS advising you to shield?

 No we haven't but our father has and as we are his full time carers and he simply can not survive without us going into his house daily, we have made the decision to shield to keep him safe.  We have tried to get other outside help for him but we can't get him the level of care he requires. 

You can still care for your father without the need to shield your whole family from the outside world. People actually work and live with vulnerable people and they have had no option to work through the whole of the lockdown. They do so by sticking to strict hygene rules when going home from work. You could still care for your father and find other work as well. This isn't just going to go away over night and we are going to have to learn to live a new "normal" life for quite sometime.

This

Im a carer for my Mother, she lives with us, she too would most likely die if she caught Covid-19. Up until today I have worked throughout with no PPE in a job where we can not socially distance. Im also the one that has to brave the supermarkets

We manage very well being scrupulous with hygiene. I don't wear work clothes or footwear inside the house. I strip off in the garage, in through the back door ( towel for modesty but we aren't over looked anyway ), clothes in the machine as I go past, straight into the shower then towel added to the machine, wash on, disenfect machine door, carry on as normal. From conversations in work its what we all do, nobody wears their work clothes into the house.

Shopping, I carry on as normal. Every shop has hand gel at the door both for yourself and the trolly/ basket. Tesco where I live have the social distancing down to a fine art and I feel very safe going in there. Come home, unload the shopping, disinfect work tops, door handles, fridge/freezer door, wash hands and carry on as normal . I don't do the leaving shopping or disinfecting it malarky, we wash our hands before and after preparing meals and drinks. We don't wear our shoes in the house. 

Its all a bit of a flaff but its perfectly manageable 

Grumpy_chap

@OP.
What line of business is your Ltd Co?
Are there any retained profits in the business?

Happy_Sloth

Grumpy_chap said:

@OP.
What line of business is your Ltd Co?
Are there any retained profits in the business?

 Its IT consultancy ... which on paper should be able to continue but i lead new data initatives for business and no-one is is thinking about building new systems or re-working the way their business functions at the moment. The business are understandably just hanging on for dear life and hoping they make it though.

I'm applying for everything and anything, i've got about 8 versions of my CV including some that re-word my experience significantly so i can apply for developer roles and i'm applying for permanent./ fix term and contract work just trying to get anything i can. 
 
I still have about £2k in the business and i haven't broken into my Tax's yet.. i know they have said we can delay tax payments but if i break into them im just going to make my life hard later on. If i leave the company in debt/arrears with tax i think if would be make it more difficult to take a permanent job if i was offered one. Just trying to keep as many options open as possible at the moment. 

Grumpy_chap

You mentioned in posts above that a string of events have consumed your financial resilience and this would challenge us all.

You also mentioned that one idea you had was to close your company and go to regular employed work.  I thin, if it was me, I would not close the company.  I just wondered, though, if that is the route you choose, once you have met obligations, would you be allowed to draw the remaining funds (which are quite low) as tax-free redundancy payment?  Just an idea and you would need to find out if the rules actually permit this for an owner-Director.  I can see that it might not be allowed as it could be open to abuse.

Given that you work in IT, I would expect that to pick up to a far stronger position in the short term after coronavirus is "passed".  As far as I can see there will be continued and increasing IT infrastructure and I have seen information on several such projects.  They may not be 'right now' but they may come back to life within a few months.  In the mean-time, can you provide support to individuals and / or SMEs in your area - this might be discounted below your usual rates but doing that would not devalue your regular work-stream when it returns to life.

Shielding is likely to be here for a long time, so, as others have also said, there is a need to find a way that allows you to meet your care obligations to your father plus meet your collective financial obligations as a family.

One of your posts mentions down-sizing the family home. That is not quick, costs a lot and 'irreversible' so would be a drsatic measure.

I note and understand your reluctance to take the BBLS.  It may be worth still considering that but, before you do what about having a look at the debt-free-wannabee (dfw) forum and preparing your SoA (Statement of Affairs).  Doing so may help you identify opportunities to make efficiencies or, if it does not, you could choose to share the SoA and seek advice from the community over in the dfw.