ESA (WRAG group) working over the Permitted Work Limit

Galileo_Figaro

Hi

Just wondering if anyone can help me with this.

I'm on ESA and currently doing Permitted Work to the Upper Limit of £99.50 a week, which you're allowed to do for 52 weeks.

My 52 weeks is nearly up, but the charity I'm working for might want to keep me on, which would be a great opportunity and more likely to get me in to work when I'm less ill.

I'm trying to find a way of keeping working for them.

My Permitted Work limit will soon drop to £20 a week. I was wondering if anyone knows, if I'm earning over that but under the ESA rate (which is about £101 a week), would I continue to get ESA but just at at couple of pounds a week (which means I still get other benefits at my current rate), or would I effectively be breaking the terms of ESA and end my claim?

Also, any other ideas as to how to make this work would be appreciated!

Thanks very much
Danny

DomRavioli

You would need to either go on a benefit calculator, or call the ESA office who will do a calculation for you, as you will lose some HB/CTA as well as ESA so it really can make it very difficult to stay with pay.

Either that or volunteer, and get expenses paid and keep your ESA? that is what I would reccommend as you still get the experience, have no incurred costs, and keep your ESA, HB and CTA if you get all that, so keep a roof over your head.

rogerblack

I'm_just_a_poor_boy wrote: »

My Permitted Work limit will soon drop to £20 a week. I was wondering if anyone knows, if I'm earning over that but under the ESA rate (which is about £101 a week), would I continue to get ESA but just at at couple of pounds a week (which means I still get other benefits at my current rate), or would I effectively be breaking the terms of ESA and end my claim?

One of the rules of entitlement for ESA is that you are not doing remunerative work.
Permitted work is explicitly excluded from this.
If you earn £99.51, do 16.1 hours a week, or go a day over - you risk a decision that you are no longer doing permitted work - but normal work - and hence don't qualify for ESA at all.

Saying 'can you only pay me £20' also may not work - as this is a deprivation of income - you could have been paid much more but chose not to to get (more) benefit.

If you now close your ESA claim, and start working for them, you may be eligible for return to work credit - though this ends come October.
https://www.gov.uk/return-to-work-credit/overview

What sort of charity are they.
It is possible that the work you are doing might be able to be classed as 'supported permitted work'.
https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/eligibility

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.

This would let you work without limit of time.

Galileo_Figaro

Thanks for both of your replies.

I was wondering whether I could switch to volunteering for the same organisation, I don't mind being on no extra money as long as I have enough to live off. But it does seem that there's a risk that they would class that as deprivation of income if I suddenly switch to volunteering for the same organisation?

It seems ridiculous that the Work Related Activity Group seems to be preventing me from doing work-related activity!

Roger, I looked into the Supported Permitted Work route a bit, although I couldn't find lots of information on it. It's a Young People's charity, and I give online advice (including benefits advice!). I thought it might be a bit hard to argue that I now need support for similar work to what I've been doing for the past ten months? But I'd by happy to hear otherwise!

Thanks again