How will I cope with no income?

Hi ,

Thank you for your question, I'm Eliza from the Community team. Our team of financial guides are very busy at the moment but they will respond to your question as soon as they can. 

If you would like to have a chat with our Support Line in the meantime, please remember you can give our teams a ring on 0808 808 00 00, 7 days a week, 8am - 8pm.

Best wishes,

Eliza

Macmillan Community team

Hello

Hello Becci

Thank you for contacting us.  I’m very sorry to hear about your recent cancer diagnosis. It must be such a worrying time for you.

I think you would definitely benefit from speaking to our Welfare Rights advisers. They’re not available on Ask an Expert at the moment but you can contact the team on 0808 808 0000, then select Option 1, Option 2, finally Option 2. You might prefer to speak to them on webchat instead – select ‘Welfare Benefits and Grants’ when you’re asked to pick a topic.

Our Welfare Rights Advisers will also be able to check if we are able to assist you with a one-off grant payment to help with the extra costs that cancer can cause. Be ready with information on your income including any savings  and outgoings such as mortgage, council tax and utility bills.

In the meantime, here is a link to information on state benefits on this website which I hope you’ll find useful.

You may find your mortgage lender can help you with some short-term options, such as reduced payments, a period of paying interest only, or a payment holiday. It’s always worth speaking to your lender to see if they can be flexible. Ask to speak to their specialist team if they have one, tell them you have a cancer diagnosis and that your income has been badly affected. Have you made a claim yet on the critical illness policy? Sorry, it’s not clear from what you’ve said. If so, you could also mention you’re making a claim but that it may take a bit longer because you’re awaiting the results of a scan.

If you agree anything with your lender, check if there will be any effect on your credit rating. We’d be happy to discuss this with you in more detail, and can share contact information for various lenders with you if we know they have a specialist team.

Concerning your critical illness insurance, if you’ve not yet made a claim, it may be beneficial to speak to a financial guide who can talk you through the process and discuss the T’s & C’s of your individual policy.

The Financial Guides can be contacted on webchat by selecting ‘Chat to us’ at the bottom right of the page, or by phoning us on 0808 808 0000, Option 1,2,1 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday.

I hope that we hear back from you soon. Our lines are open every day 8am to 8pm but please note the opening hours for each team here.

Take care.