Rhys Thomas

Rhys Thomas and his wife were heading into a strong year of work, managing and producing events and theatre shows.

Now he is consumed by the daily battle of making sure they have enough money to pay their bills after his work all but collapsed and they fell through the gaps in government support.

Rhys didn’t qualify for Self-employed Income Support as he earned above the threshold, while his wife received a small amount as she had recently been earning little while taking care of their two-year-old.

Universal Credit has been an unreliable and too small backup and their income has fallen from about £60,000 to “almost nothing”. The couple, from Worcester, are now living on money they had put aside to pay tax bills in January.

“That’s money we have… but it is already spent as it is owed to HMRC,” says Rhys, 34. “But if it’s a choice between not having any food and spending savings meant to pay tax bills, then… So we are slowly working through our very diligently saved tax savings.”

He is working on applications for a bounce-back loan in order to pay those tax bills when they fall due in January. If he succeeds, repayments are not required for 12 months. But all he is doing is storing up debt.

“It is not ideal that the only options open to us are the ones that push the financial burden to later,” he says.

The couple have also just come to the end of a six-month mortgage holiday, with a payment just made.

“That was a big drain on the bank account,” says Rhys. “Now it’s a case of trying to work out how to make the next mortgage payment. And it will be like that for the foreseeable future until we start making money again.”