Member Support Programme
Emotional, financial and legal support when you need it most.
The self-employed community is incredibly resilient, and it can often take courage to ask for help. When you’re ready for it, we’ve taken the stress out of knowing where to start by providing 24/7 support through your Director membership.
What is it?
Available to Director members, the Member Support Programme is confidential support accessible from anywhere, at any time, enabling you to speak in confidence to an accredited counsellor or subject specialist on three key areas:
- Counselling
- Legal advice and support
- Debt advice and support
This benefit may also be used by your partner and children, over the age of 18*, who are living with you.
*Dependent children over the age of 18 (or over 16 if enrolled in full-time education) that reside in the same household can make use of this benefit. Due to the complexity and regulatory requirements around providing mental health support to minors the service cannot support children under the age of 16.
Some of the key areas that the counsellors cover are:
- Stress
- Relationship difficulties
- Bereavement
- Health and wellbeing
- Financial and debt support
- Legal support
- Family issues
- Anxiety
- Emotional problems
What support do I have access to?
Director members benefit from the enhanced support programme which comes with the following:
- 24/7 helpline, 365 days a year, UK wide. The phone is answered by a clinician who will listen to why you have called and direct you to the correct counselling. You will receive your first counselling session within 5 days of making the call
- You will receive 6 counselling sessions per event, per annum*. These sessions are free of charge. If after those sessions you needed longer term help, then you will be guided on how you can receive this.
- Legal Support from Irwin Mitchell: this covers topics such as family law, estate planning, medical negligence, personal home, immigrations etc.
- Don’t forget, you also get access to the tax and legal helplines provided by Markel, which may cover other legal topics not listed here
- Debt support from Auriga: If you’re having difficulty with debt, they will speak to creditors with you to help reduce your debt or set up a manageable payment plan.
- Access to the Resilience App MyMindPal, which is an online interactive mental fitness tool.
- Ask Bill, a tool which offers tips on reducing your bills.
- Online portal with self-help books covering topics like stress, abuse, bereavement, etc.
- Podcast and blogs all focused on mental health and wellbeing
All of the counsellors are accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and work within the framework of the BACP code of ethics.
*Per event, per year means that you can have, for example, 6 sessions for bereavement, at the same time as 6 sessions for anxiety.
How does it work?
As soon as you become an IPSE Director member you’ll be given access to the support programme.
You’ll need to be logged into your member portal where you’ll gain access to the dedicated helpline.
From the site, you’ll be able to follow these steps to access the various areas of support:
- Call the dedicated number provided on the site
- The telephone counsellor will speak to you about the support you’re looking for - everything is completely confidential
- Depending on if your enquiry is related to legal, financial or management support, you will be passed on to the relevant advisor
- This counsellor then carries out an in-depth assessment
- Referral is made for telephone (or face-to-face) counselling within 24 hours
- Ongoing counselling support is offered via telephone (or face-to-face) sessions
“There’s quite a lot of resources, in terms of thinking about how you pitch your work, don’t get paid late or whatever it might be.”
"As an IPSE member I rest easy knowing that support is just a phone call away. It's an essential part of my business set-up!"
“I wish I’d known about IPSE when I first started as a freelancer because it would have really helped me make those difficult decisions.”
People who value this benefit usually go for...
Most suitable for you if
You run your business as a Limited company.
*minimum annual subscription
Benefits include:
- Tax and legal helplines
- IPSE Offers
- Unlimited co-working
- Business Hub
- Events, networking & training
- Member directory
- Campaigning
- Advice and guidance
- Discounted contract review
- 1-2-1 Success Sessions
- Illness and injury cover up to £2,000
- Jury service cover up to £5,000 per claim
- Tax & VAT investigation cover of legal fees up to £100k, £500 per day for loss of earnings up to £1,500
- Managed service company cover
- Contract failure cover up to £1,000
- Tax pre-dispute cover
- End client or agency failure cover up to £10k for loss of earnings
- Member support programme
