Earnings Whilst On IS

Sylvester

How much can you earn whilst on IS (with disability premium - approx £84 p.w as of Monday just gone) without it affecting your benefits?

Someone I know has been volunteering for some time, but has now been offered £15 p/m as a token gesture for their continued time - About 24 hours p/m/ 6hours p/w.

If it makes any difference, she will be paid £15 p/m and not £3.75 p/w.

She has not accepted it yet as she is unsure what to do because she doesn't know how much she can earn etc.

The employer doesn't want to pay her or employ her on 'Theraputic reasons' as the person is a friend and they want to stay friends, not employer/employee and the lady she works for says she can't be friends with employee's (she's odd!)

Anyway, any guidance would be appreciated, as i'm being phoned often for advice!

Thanks

healy

In that situation they are allowed to earn £20 per week. They must inform the DWP if they do any work voluntary or otherwise.

real1314

bear in mind that if the employer is a proper business, depending on the work being done it could be construed as collusive employment if the payment is being kept low to avoid an effect on the benefits, whilst giving a greater contribution to the employer.

so, if they were working in a shop "to get out of the house" but were doing 5 hours a week in the same capacity as any other emplyee could, that might be iffy, (should be 5 hrs x £5.35 (?)).
In this scenario they might determine that a "notional earning" level should be applied.

Sylvester

Well, she's been doing voluntary work as a favour for a friend for a while now, and the DWP are aware of it.

I've told her not to bother with £15 p/m because of all the hassle it will cause. If it was per week, i'd encourage.

real1314

Hi again, what sort of work does she do exactly?

Your friend could always write to DWP and ask what effect it would have before she does it, that way everyone's happy (she'd get a "hypothetical, not full advice, it all depends etc" type reply, but should be more helpful than not I'd think?

Sylvester

real1314 wrote: »

Hi again, what sort of work does she do exactly?

Your friend could always write to DWP and ask what effect it would have before she does it, that way everyone's happy (she'd get a "hypothetical, not full advice, it all depends etc" type reply, but should be more helpful than not I'd think?

Administration.

She's been volunteering for years and never been paid, but her friend wants to give her £15 p/m, but through the books, not as £15 from her own pocket as such.

She could ask the DWP, but they send a letter virtually every month anyway saying "Now you are working part-time, we need to see payslips etc" when she doesn't earn anything, and every month she has to phone up and say she doesn't get paid, and they say "We know you don't, so why are you phoning us to tell us" and on and on it goes.

I'd sooner give the girl £15 p/m as a friend as DWP can be a nightmare

real1314

Not being funny or anything but she's doing 6 hrs of admin a week for nothing. Why shouldn't she be paid 6 x £5.35 (is that the min wage now?) for this? i.e £32 pw. She'd keep £20 of it, or could just do 3 hrs 44 mins for £20??

The employer is doing well out of this arrangement aren't they?

Rabiddog_2

Fares, expenses for getting to work, eating whilst at work .. she's allowed to eat while there I hope!?? surely this lot would add up to more than 3.75