ESA support group, volunteering?

trenzalore_2

I'm asking this on behalf of a friend after receiving helpful advice here myself recently.

Just over 2 years ago my friend was in a serious car accident in which she sustained a serious head injury, this has left her with epilepsy that at the moment is unstable and not completely controlled by medication. She lost her job due to being medically unfit and now receives ESA and is in the support group.

Up until the last couple of months her time has been filled with hospital and occupational therapy appointments but these have slowed down now as there is very little anyone can do to but wait and see if her epilepsy becomes controllable, and now she's bored stiff and starting to show signs of depression. She's always worked and is a naturally busy person, so I suggested that she might want to look into volunteering with a local charity that have helped her out over the last couple of years and who know all about her condition but she's been that you can't volunteer on ESA. I'm on ESA WRAG and was told that I could volunteer (not an option for me at the moment unfortunately) so does anyone know which one of us has been informed correctly?

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

epitome

if its less than 16 hours a week she can volunteer or she can do paid work under 16hours. She also gets to keep her earnings if under £99.50 week

trenzalore_2

Thanks for that, she is very unlikely to be able to get paid work as I doubt any employer would want to take her on because she rarely gets warnings of her fits. The charity she has had dealings with is one that was set up to help people with brain injuries so are well set to look after her if she did fit while volunteering there.

I'll pass the information on to her.

epitome

Need to inform the ESA of any changes. Best phone and report it a week or 2 before it begins.

trenzalore_2

Thank you everyone, I have passed the information on to her and she is going to discus it with her doctor at her next appointment then take it from there.