Self Employed Grant / Traveling to Spain

ryanoeix

Hi I’m currently earning less then I did due to doing building work and less work since coming back from the lockdown...

I am claiming the 2nd grant due to my loss but also I had a holiday planned on 16August for 1 week Spain. When I come back I now have to isolate for 2 weeks and cannot work at all due to new gov guidelines .

will I still be be able to receive my grant although it is the governments advice to not travel on non essential holidays as I still was hoping to go.

just wondering if I decided to go on holiday will the HMRC look at this as if it’s my fault I wasn’t in work when I come back and perhaps not give me the grant or question it in the future checks they do ...?

thank you 

Jeremy535897

If you met the eligibility criteria for the first grant, and your business is adversely affected by coronavirus after 13 July 2020, you qualify for the second grant. From what you say, that has already happened, so whether or not you go on holiday in August is irrelevant. It seems rather illogical to ignore government advice and lose 3 weeks of work for the sake of one week in Spain, assuming you can even get there as most flights will be cancelled.

Grumpy_chap

If you travel to Spain against FCO advice, any travel insurance will not cover you.

poppy12345

Why would you go against FCO advice to go on holiday?

jimkelly

What would you do if you were there and the Spanish imposed a total lockdown again?  You could be stuck there for months, with no insurance.

It's a crazy thought process to be flying anywhere at the moment unless absolutely essential, even more so when you already know there is a second wave incoming.

silvercar

Grumpy_chap said:

If you travel to Spain against FCO advice, any travel insurance will not cover you.

That's a blanket statement and untrue. There are specialist insurers that cover people to go to war zones when the FCO advice is all but essential travel. There will be insurers and the cost will be more than the comparison sites usually find. They may take a bit of digging to find, but that doesn't mean that "any travel insurance will not cover you"

bradders1983

jimkelly said:

What would you do if you were there and the Spanish imposed a total lockdown again?  You could be stuck there for months, with no insurance.

I doubt it: flights never 100% stopped the last time from Spain to the UK despite most people thinking they did.

silvercar

Grumpy_chap said:

If you travel to Spain against FCO advice, any travel insurance will not cover you.

silvercar said:

Grumpy_chap said:

If you travel to Spain against FCO advice, any travel insurance will not cover you.

That's a blanket statement and untrue. There are specialist insurers that cover people to go to war zones when the FCO advice is all but essential travel. There will be insurers and the cost will be more than the comparison sites usually find. They may take a bit of digging to find, but that doesn't mean that "any travel insurance will not cover you"

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6173393/insurance-product-when-fco-advise-against-all-but-essential-travel

jimkelly

bradders1983 said:

jimkelly said:

What would you do if you were there and the Spanish imposed a total lockdown again?  You could be stuck there for months, with no insurance.

I doubt it: flights never 100% stopped the last time from Spain to the UK despite most people thinking they did.

Oh, really.  So how do you account for this elderly couple "stranded" in Spain for 4 months:
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18571917.elderly-gourock-couple-finally-home-stranded-spain-four-months-pandemic/

How about a couple stranded in Goa for 5 months (they are still there, by all accounts):
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brits-stranded-overseas-five-months-22377872

Both those took me 5 seconds to find on Google, so they have to be the tip of the iceberg.

bradders1983

The Goa case, no idea. Goa isnt in Spain so no idea why you have brought that up.

 But I can assure you flights to/from Spain were available. Yes you may have had to change and/or fly into an unsuitable UK airport but anyone going to the newspapers with compo face saying there were no flights is talking out of their rear end. 

There were cases in the last few months, on this very forum, of people claiming they were stranded in Spain, five mins on Skyscanner and airport departure boards proved this to be a load of bull. I mean, did you even read that first article properly? It even says there were flights like I describe. People find flights dont cost 50p and arent leaving from the nearest airport and so claim they are "stranded ", absolutely ridiculous 🙄🙄

And I havent even mentioned the repat flights some airlines put on in the first week or so.

jimkelly

The Goa case is relevant because whether we are talking about Spain, Goa, Australia, South America or wherever - why risk going abroad at the current moment in time?  All the more so when you run your own business for goodness sake.

Not only that, if the FCO advises against it, you will not be covered by travel insurance so what happens if you need emergency medical care?  You can't just walk (or be carried) in to a hospital and it's free at the point of delivery, like here.