Financial issues related to burn injuries

This section covers:

  • Loss of income when time off work is needed
  • Additional costs associated with hospital trips and treatments, including travel expenses and parking
  • Costs from cancelled events and activities

Jessica said she was “lucky” and Rhian described herself as “fortunate” that their living and financial circumstances meant that the financial impacts of their burn injuries did not affect them too much. They recognised though that other people in less secure financial situations might really struggle.

Helen Y feels fortunate that her partner was able to financially support the family whilst she was recovering.

Yeah, it probably was a slight worry, not as much as it would be for other people because I’ve got a partner who also works. But it was a slight worry, it was a slight worry in so far as how long is this going to last? You know, can we last forever with me just doing a few hours every week, or whatever?

Was it something that you think you were worried about at the beginning when perhaps you underestimated the severity and the longevity of a burn?

Yeah, exactly. When I realised I was going to be in hospital for three weeks that was when it hit me, oh this isn’t just like, this isn’t something that’s going to be over very quickly. So, yes, I did start to worry then about the financial impacts of it all.

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Loss of income when time off work is needed

The people we talked to told us that worrying about finances added more stress to an already difficult situation.

Sarah explained how expenses, such as petrol and having to take time off work, added stress to an already difficult situation.

I mean, I live about an hour from the hospital. So, I guess, if you add up all the petrol, parking charges, you know and when I was in hospital my partner brought my youngest, who was still a baby, in to see me each day because I was breastfeeding her, so yeah, I guess we must have spent, I dread to think how much, on petrol and parking and things like that. So, yeah, it must be huge.

Yeah, definitely.

We must have spent a lot of money on that over the last three years. It’s frightening, I’m sure. And probably best not to think about but no I, you know, like everything, it’s an additional expense when you’ve got to try and save money when you’re not earning. Yeah, I guess that does have a big impact and I guess, you know, like a lot of injuries can be treated at the hospital, you know we’ve got a hospital 10-minutes from us, but you know, we had to go to one further away. Yeah, I guess that does, and I guess a lot of people have to travel to burns units a lot further than they would to their local hospital.

Yeah, definitely, and I guess it’s that additional expense and additional time and stress and planning.

Yeah, it’s a lot, isn’t it? I guess it is something that adds to an already difficult situation.

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Some people we spoke to told us that after they or their child were burnt, they needed to take time off work or reduce their hours, which impacted them financially. Other people talked about feeling fortunate that they had partners who were still able to work and provide an income for the family. Tom’s parents were able to help out financially, though he felt uncomfortable asking for this.

Helen Y didn’t realise the severity of her burn until after she was told she would need to stay in hospital for three weeks. This made her start to worry about money issues as she would have to take time away from work.

Tom recalled feeling worried and stressed about earning an income after he was burnt

It’s just stressful cancelling everything. I don’t know, it was just a bit of a downer. I sort of knew I had to cancel and, like, it’s difficult going around emailing people cancelling the holidays. And also, I was skint because not everything I got money back for and it was … I don’t know.

But it was, like, just another thing on top of that and then not being able to get a load of jobs, paying for, like, all that travelling to go to interviews and then just slowly becoming more and more poor. Just a bit of a stressful few months.

Yeah, it definitely sounds that way and were your parents in a situation where they could help you out financially or …?

Yeah, but I’m quite proud, so I don’t know, I did ask but, yeah, I don’t know.

Did you find it difficult to be like, be ok with asking for money?

Yeah, a bit, yeah.

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Jessica needed some time off after her burn injury and her husband picked up more responsibilities for childcare on top of his work. They decided to put their daughter into childcare to help take some pressure off, which meant some additional costs.

Additional costs associated with hospital trips and treatments, including travel expenses and parking

When someone has a burn there are sometimes expenses associated with hospital trips and treatments. This can include hospital car parking charges and petrol costs for driving to and from the hospital. Chris Y highlighted that parents visiting their child in hospital need to pay for their own food too, which can add up.

After Abi’s son was burnt, she needed to drive daily to her nearest burns unit which was 40 minutes away.

Definitely financially because, I don’t know how many miles exactly, but it takes about 40 minutes each way and this was every day for six days. So, I remember it being quite a tight month. We didn’t get any support with that. I don’t know whether that would have been something we’d have- if we’d sought out, we’d have got support for that but at the time we just paid it and got on with it.

Is that transports costs – was it petrol?

Yeah, we had to drive up. I don’t know. As I’m saying it I’m wondering if there is support or whether that’s if you’re an in-patient. But if there is anything like that maybe make that aware, you know, to parents, even when they’re travelling to and fro, that they can get a little bit of help with that because like I say, we weren’t lucky enough to live right near where we needed to be.

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Costs from cancelled events and activities

Amy, Chris Y, and Tom also spoke about having to cancel holidays, activities, and events that they or their child could no longer attend after the burn. Sometimes they lost money because of this or found it a struggle to get a refund.

At the time of his burn, Tom was finishing a Master’s degree and looking forward to going on some holidays. He had to cancel his holidays and did not receive all of his money back. Tom also found it difficult to apply for jobs whilst he was recovering from the burn, and having to pay to travel to job interviews was difficult.

Chris Y and Amy said they felt guilt in different ways after their son, William, was burnt.

Amy: I think I found it harder, especially in the early days, because it was the guilt, because he was cooking dinner for his siblings and that’s like a parent role. Even though he’d done it and it’s part of life skills and the fact that I was at work, and I wasn’t at home, not that things would have been any different and, actually, if I’d been home and not Chris, I don’t think I would have got water onto him quite as quickly. But, yeah, I think it was the guilt and wondering whether people are judging you for actually you’ve made …

Chris: And interestingly, the, on that kind of front, people were more questioning of the fact that we’d let him cook. Not that he was cooking but “Oh you let, you let the kids cook?” It’s like “Yeah, what’s he going to do when he goes to university? Just eat beans out of a tin?” You know, no, of course he cooks. He’s been cooking for years.

Chris: I think probably one of the hardest things for me was everybody telling me that his burns wouldn’t have been so bad, weren’t as bad as they could have been because I’d got to him. And actually, tempering that with the fact that I was sat in the living room, and he was doing the work. And so that guilt of “I could have been doing that and then he wouldn’t have got burned.”

Amy: The guilt thing we have different, we have the same guilt but in different ways and Chris got to hear the screaming, I got to see the debriding bit, yeah, we just saw different sides of what was happening and…

Chris: Another shared experience, isn’t it?

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Amy and Chris Y encountered some problems when trying to claim back money for cancelled activities.

Chris: And on the financial front, yes, we were … there was no issue with us taking the time, there was no issues with paying for the parking and so on but, actually, there was a whole load of grief and stress and aggravation of ringing up all the clubs that William was booked into, to explain that he wasn’t coming because he’s actually in hospital with 8 degree-, 8 percent burns. And some of them were really, really good, it’s like ‘Yeah, don’t worry about it, we’ll reschedule it for another time, just let us know when you want to do it.’ Others were quite painful getting the money out of them that we’d paid them.

Amy: It was a scouting activity and they had to put an insurance claim in. It was six months for the insurance to pay out.

Chris: And then, you know, if we’d have been in a different position that could’ve actually been quite a quite significant amount of money that we were sat waiting on coming back.

Amy: And we didn’t have to, we didn’t have to because we could juggle work round and both work from home, if necessary, we didn’t have to pay out for additional childcare.

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Rhian felt that it was important to prioritise her health and mindset and she tried not to “get stressed out” about finances. As she was self-employed, Rhian felt fortunate that she did not feel pressured to return to work.

Rhian believes it is important to look after your mindset whilst recovering.

I allowed myself to breathe and realised that, you know, work is work at the end of the day. Your wellbeing is far more important and also your mindset’s far more important than getting stressed out about it. There is more to life than work. And I know some people were like ‘Oh, well, you need money to enable you to do things.’ Yes, you do need money but at the time-. If you’re not going to look after your health who else is? Money can’t look after your health.

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