Due to the extreme weather now and what looks like extreme weather for the next few weeks.
Can us window cleaners go and sign on 
afterall we all pay our taxes and national insurance so surely we should be entitled to a bit of what we've paid in all these years??
Can anyone tell me what we are entitled too.
I know we should've put a slush fund together for these bad weather days but if you don't earn it how can you save it?
I think things tightened up over the years some years ago but it used to be easier to be "sick" if you were self employed. You could sign yourself off for the first week (of which the first three working days were unpaid), and needed a doctor to sign you off for longer to extend the claim. I know the system has changed a lot since I last claimed sickness benefit while self-employed.
Without being sick, I think the only route to benefits is the means tested one. I think they take your annual income from the previous year. This is made extremely difficult on purpose. One way to skirt around some of these issues is to be an employee of your own company (ltd.?) so that you are effectively on the PAYE system. This is probably too much hassle for what you would get out of it.
If things are desperate, you may qualify for a crisis loan but don't hold your breath.