Unloading a dishwasher doesn`t carry a health warning. But perhaps it should. As the other week, while squatting down to unstack a load of plates I felt a searing pain shoot up my back.

It was so bad that I yelped in agony, fell back and did so again as I tried to get up. When I finally managed to do so, the room seemed to swim as a horrible wave of nausea swept over me.

My husband – always one for a timely entrance – walked in at that very moment and (unhelpfully) remarked that I looked “grey”. On hearing what had happened he urged me to go and lie down. Much as I would have loved to, I had to decline.

A taxi was already booked by the company I was doing some work for to take me to an important meeting. So, whatever had caused the spasm in my back – age, injury or a pathetic inability to crouch over the dishes -would have to wait.

Heroic? Stupid? A bit of both? Perhaps. But I`m also self-employed. And when I cancel appointments or don`t work, not only do I not get paid. There`s also a chance someone else will get the gig next time. Little wonder they say the self-employed have the toughest bosses.

Not that I`m in any way alone. My 78-year-old butcher has had about four days off in his entire working life. Doubtless the 4.39 million other self-employed workers in Britain tell a similar story.

One UK study found one in four freelance workers take no annual holiday at all. Of those who do, 45% take their work with them. Of course being your own boss allows for a degree of flexibility and freedom.

But with the privilege comes the pain of unpredictability and economic uncertainty. It`s part of what drives us and pushed me to sit through a meeting hoping I wouldn`t chuck up over the spread sheets.

It’s why Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall should be vocal and bloodless in drawing on the ethos and example of the self-employed to prove that human beings are capable of overcoming challenges in order to earn a living.

Every sole trader or freelancer who drags themselves to the office – even at times of sadness, anxiety or physical discomfort – acts as a rebuttal against the handwringing orthodoxy surrounding the £5bn cuts to benefits

The whole point of the benefits system is to ensure help is given to the truly vulnerable. Namely those who, sadly, are so compromised by disability or serious illness that, even with the greatest work ethic in the world, are simply not able to earn a living.

For the rest, cuts have to be made. Working-age benefits, specifically those related to health and disability, touched £49 billion last year and are set to hit £76 billion by the end of the decade. The figure has to be brought under control.

And to do that, we have to remind ourselves that despite the vicissitudes of life, it is still possible to go to work. Indeed, with the evolution of smart technology it doesn`t even mean having to leave the house since the scope for remote working is massive.

It is shocking that one-in-eight young people are not in employment, education or training. The notion of can`t has to be supplanted by try.

By marshalling the example of those who work for themselves the Government has a ready-made counter argument for naysayers. Meanwhile adopting the attitude of the self employed could bring dynamism back into the workforce.

And ensure the money that is spent on benefits goes to those who really need it – and who, in all likelihood, are the ones who really wish they didn`t.