PENNIES left in the bank, clients pulling the plug and kids' tearful supermarket breakdowns – life in lockdown is a constant battle for thousands of self-employed single mums.

The group are amongst the hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, often relying on one wage to keep a roof over their children's heads, while also having to juggle work with childcare and homeschooling.

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Last week, the Government announced a package to bail out those who had lost work, with grants of up to 80 per cent of their average earnings.

But, to qualify, they would need to have filed tax returns for the last three years – leaving many with new businesses falling through the net. 

Latest figures found that 125,000 people registered as self-employed in the year to September 2019.

Julie Hawkins, founder of the Single Mums Business Network, says desperation over money can lead women to the edge.

"This is a very serious and worrying problem," she tells Sun Online. "When you’re in a situation where you’re home with children you can’t feed – it can even drive people to take their own lives.

“It’s unthinkable. But it’s a very, fragile thing to be scared and helpless that you can’t look after your family.

“Anybody with children needs a cash boost right now, even if they just got £100 instead of £20 for the next 12 weeks."

Here, Sun Online talks to five single mums about what the lockdown has meant to them.

'I have earned zero this month'

Rebecca Hastings, 41, lives in Droitwich, Worcestershire and is mum to Bibi, eight, and Rocco, four.

She says: “I worked as a solicitor until last year when I set up my business as a transformational therapist, working with entrepreneurs to help them achieve their goals.

Just after Christmas, I went full-time and I was matching my solicitor salary, working with five or six clients at a time, and charging £600 for a 28 day package.

Although I can do most of my work online over Zoom, I have earned absolutely nothing in March.

My clients are small business owners and entrepreneurs and they have all gone into panic mode, so no one is spending money.

As my business is new, I am not eligible for the new self-employed grants the Government announced last week.

I've fallen through the cracks and it feels grossly unfair

I seem to fall through the cracks.

It feels grossly unfair as I have contributed large amounts of tax as a lawyer and the one time I need some assistance, it's not available for me and my children.

We were told to apply for Universal Credit on an HMRC phone line, which I finally got through to at 11pm after three days of trying.

There were 72,000 people ahead of me in the queue. The next phone appointment they have is April 22nd.

After applying, I got an email saying, ‘Thank you for making your application, please now call the job centre to make an appointment to go in.’

Those face-to-face appointments obviously aren't happening, so I have no idea what happens next.

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