Income based ESA and Permitted Work

jonova82

Hi all,

long time reader, first time poster.

a friend receives work-related ESA and is considering the possibility of trying Permitted Work in the future. the type of ESA they receive is income based rather than contribution based, and i'm finding it a bit unclear whether any earnings from PW would be deducted from their ESA amount (as seems to be the case with Income Support, for example £40 earned = £40 less benefit) or whether the Permitted Work income could be kept without reductions as seems to be the case for those receiving contribution based ESA.

i have seen varying answers online and not much that addresses this question specifically... so any help is welcome

pmlindyloo

The 'rules' which you find set out when you google refer to both income based and contribution based ESA. Doesn't make it very clear, does it?

Be aware that the 'rules' differ depending on which group you are in.

mikey_bach

I assume you mean your friend is in the WRAG, as a you say work related ESA

Usually your ESA isn’t affected if you:

• work and earn up to £20 a week
• work and earn up to £99.50 a week doing work supervised by someone from a local council or voluntary organisation
• work less than 16 hours a week, earn up to £99.50 a week for up to 52 weeks

This is called ‘permitted work’.
You can also do ‘supported permitted work’ for less than 16 hours a week and earn up to £99.50 a week if your illness or disability very severely limits your ability to work.
Supported permitted work is supervised by someone from a local council or a voluntary organisation whose job it is to arrange work for disabled people.
You must tell the Department of Work and Pension (DWP) if you start doing permitted work. They will send you form PW1 to fill in and send back to them.
Any volunteer work you do needs to be reported and can affect your ESA.


In the WRAG he can earn the £99.50 for a year if he was in the Support Group this would be indefinitely or as long as he remained in the Support Group.
any earning he earns from this permitted work does not effect his ESA
in other words earnings are not taking into account against his benefit

jonova82

ah... so contribution/income based ESA are treated the same in Permitted Work and the only difference is in how long PW can be carried out depending whether you are in the WRAG or the Support.

thanks for the information, guys. my friend has seen several messages on other web sites where people in his situation (income based/ WRAG) have been told that they would see no financial benefit from trying PW or even be worse off for it! hardly encouraging. but i suppose there will always be a few naysayers...