Income during treatment.

SandeeAR

For those of you unable to do your job during treatment, what do you do for income?   If I close my daycare,we lose a 1/3 of our income.  I've been researching getting disability during this time.  Has anyone applied?  What was the outcome?    Thanks

peggy_j

I remember that some members here have applied for disability. I can't find the threads right now. Maybe they were in that forum (below) on "Insurance and other financial issues". Also, on the main section of the BC.org website there are some ideas, such as this page. Sorry you're in this situation. Hope this helps. 

http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/your_job/

fredntan

Unless you are stage four you wouldbe denied. Imaybe wrong. I looked into this myself last winter

MaryNY

Sandee: I think you need to do what is best for your health. When going through chemotherapy your white cell counts are likely to be very low putting you at increased risk of infection. Working with children (esp very young) would not be the ideal place to be. Could you get someone to run the daycare for you for a couple of months. If you close it completely, wouldn't you risk losing your clients?

I think fredntan is right about the difficulty of getting disability benefits. I think it's almost an automatic approval for those who have stage IV breast cancer, but for earlier stages I believe the process is very difficult. Maybe short-term disability is easier to get for the duration of treatment. 

Linda1966

I own and run a fast food takeaway store. Couldnt physically manage the work and couldnt stand the smell of the food for a full 6 or 7 months so had to hire staff/extend their existing hours and then slowly (and with their blessing) reduced their hours when I could start doing a few hours a day till i built back up to fulltime hours which was about 10 months post BC tx. I still did all the paperwork, orders, inventory etc during the whole thing, but from home with regular phone calls to the shop. Was able to reign in their spending and keep the shop ticking over reasonably well.

 It was the best and only way for me to still have a business when i finished treatment. Sure I went into debt a bit, but managed to regain the lost financial territory within a year or so.

Im not sure what the rules on daycare are, but can you hire a manager or someone to cope while you go thru tx if you cant get any disability benefits? Better to retain the business and clients and lose a bit of money, then lose all you have worked for entirely.

 Hope this helps