When you’re suffering from a long-term illness the first thing that comes to mind is how you’re going to afford to live whilst you’re not working. Here are some tips to cope…
Being off work with an illness is a difficult time for anyone, especially if you can’t physically continue due to an illness. There are lots of ways to earn money during this time; you can sue your GP for misdiagnosis, claim benefits, sell your belongings, and more.
In this post, we’re going to share 10 of the best ways to substitute your income when you’re off work with a long-term illness. Take a look…
How to Substitute Your Income When You Have a Long-Term Illness
Taking time off work with an illness doesn’t mean you can’t make money. Here are 10 ways to substitute your income when you’re off with a long-term illness:
1. Sick pay
Depending on which country you live in, there should be some amount of sick pay you can claim once you first take time off work with your illness.
In the UK, for example, you can claim Statutory Sick Pay of £96.35 per week for up to 28 weeks if you’re employed but unable to work.
2. Claim benefits
Another way to substitute your income, especially if you were receiving sick pay and have outlasted the maximum time limit, is to claim benefits.
Most countries have a benefit system available to the sick and disabled, you just have to find out which ones you’re eligible for. There are websites that can do an eligibility test for you, such as entitledto, so you know what benefits you’re able to claim.
3. Put in a negligence or personal injury claim
If your employer or doctor was responsible for your condition, or caused a delay in diagnosis, you could put in a medical negligence or personal injury claim.
These claims, if successful, could pay for your living costs for the entirety of your illness. This is definitely a good option for substituting your income if you are able to make a successful claim.
4. Cashback credit cards
When you use a cashback credit card, you get a proportion of what you spend as money back. All you have to do once you’ve signed up is set up a direct debit to pay off the card in full every month, so you don’t have to pay interest.
The money you make back won’t be enough to substitute your whole income but is an effortless way to make money.
5. Take on a renter
Another way to make some extra cash to substitute your income is taking on a renter. If you have space in your house that you’re not using, and don’t mind someone else living there, then renting it out is a no-brainer.
Some countries, like the UK, even have government ‘Rent a Room’ schemes that pay you £7,500 a year, tax-free, to let out a spare room. If you’d rather do it privately you can rent out a room through Airbnb or any other rental app.
6. Get paid for your storage space
If you’d rather not have a person living out of your house, how about just looking after their stuff? Companies like Storemates allow you to rent out spare rooms, loft space, and any other empty floor space in your house as storage space for local people.
You can put your own monthly price on the storage space and, by just having someone’s stuff lying in your spare nooks and crannies, you could potentially make a lot of money.
You obviously need to charge less than commercial storage, ideally around 50 percent, so that people actually want to use you over them. For someone with a long-term illness, this could be a great substitute for your income.
7. Do some freelance work
If the skills you usually get paid for are marketable, you can do some freelancing on the side, as long as you’re well enough to do it. That way you can do it on your own timescale and work it around hospital appointments.
Websites like PeoplePerHour and Fiverr are good for this; all you have to do is promote your talent on there and wait for people to respond. You can also peruse open requests from people who are looking for someone with your skillset.
8. Invest your money
Investing money is no longer exclusive to wall street elites. Thousands of people are investing in stocks from the comfort of their own homes.
It takes a lot of understanding to be successful with stocks, but there’s more information out there than ever and you can teach yourself the ropes, especially if you have the time. Find an investment guide online, look at new currencies like bitcoin, if you can, and try it out.
9. Mystery shopping
Mystery shopping is one of the oldest ways to make money and is still going strong today. The difference is, you can now do mystery shopping from the comfort of your own home and there are more stores online than ever before.
Not only that, there are more places to sign up for mystery shopping than ever before so you have more of a chance of being accepted. The money you make from this probably won’t cover a whole substitution of your income, but will definitely help.
10. Sell your stuff
Selling your stuff doesn’t provide monthly income, but could help you accomplish some of the other ideas on this list. You could use the money for initial stock investment, to make a medical negligence claim, and many other income-based tasks.
Everyone has things they don’t need or that are worth more money than they think, so do an inventory and put some of it on eBay.
Ready to Start Substituting Your Income with Your Long-Term Illness?
In this post, we’ve covered 10 of the easiest ways to make money and substitute your income when you’re off work with a long-term illness.
There are lots of other ways to make money during this time, so if the ones in this post aren’t sufficient, there’s plenty more out there to help you substitute your income.
