partner on ESA,can I work two hours per week?

russell1936

My partner claims IR ESA for both us at couple rate aswell as a top up payment of £12.25 pw as he used to be on incapacity benefit. He is in the work related group and gets a premium for this. He also receives DLA mobility / care at the low rates. We get full Housing benefit and council tax benefit (minus the £8 per week that we pay towards council tax and the £15.80 per week that we loose in bedroom tax)
I also get £61.64 per week child tax credit and £20.30 per week child benefit as I have a 15 year old child.
I do not have to work as I am a carer for my partner but I am not entitled to carers allowance as my partner is only on low rate care DLA. We have no other income, savings or assets.
I have been offered 2 hours per week paid work at £8.80 per hour. Will I be allowed to keep this (will it be disregarded) or will some or all of it be deducted from either the ESA, the council tax benefit or the housing benefit that we get? If it cant be disregarded, I know that my partner is allowed to do permitted work, but does this apply to me aswell? if so, can I also only do it for 52 weeks ? I have found it impossible to find a difinitive answer for this as it is all about the claimant, not the partner/ carer of the claimant.

Thanks

duchy

You should be claiming carers allowance I'd think (which has an earnings cap on it) and calculate as a joint claim (which your claim already should be)

pmlindyloo

duchy wrote: »

You should be claiming carers allowance I'd think (which has an earnings cap on it) and calculate as a joint claim (which your claim already should be)

OP is not entitled to CA as partner is on low rate DLA and not middle rate.

I can answer the question about earnings for income based ESA. There is a £20 disregard so you should be able to keep any earnings under this amount.

pmlindyloo

Sorry, having a dipsy moment.

As you will still be entitled to income based ESA then you will still have full entitlement to HB and CT support.

pmlindyloo

As far as I am aware permitted work is only allowed for the claimant not for the partner added to the claim.

russell1936

Thanks for your answers but do you think £20 is disregarded for ESA and Housing benefit ?? As it has been difficult to find out what my "applicable amount" is, it is hard to know if the £17.60 I would earn would be classed as excess income for housing benefit calculations, because if it is, the excess income (according to one source) would be deducted by 65%. Another source I found says that single people have a £5 disregard and couples a £10 earnings disregard for housing benefit. If we were claiming income support there is definitely a £20 disregard full stop as you get a disability premium added to your applicable amount, but if you claim ESA you are not entitled to the disabilty premium. I may be confused here, am I missing something that does say that £20 is disregarded for HB if you get ESA??

thanks again!

sugarplumfairy

I'm in a similar position russell1936..as I'm classed as carer for my partner who's on ESA IR and DLA low rate..yet I get nothing for being his carer..and any money above the £20 I earn comes off our benefit..he's allowed to do permitted work..which we've just had a new letter about that contradicts itself by saying that you can do 16 hrs a week and earn £20 or 52 weeks and earn £97..that's me confused!!! As for the HB & CT..i'm sorry but i can't answer that either..i'll be contacting the council next week to find out about that..so thanks for the prompt.
I've also found it nigh on impossible to find out any information about the joint claimant (me) e.g how much my part of the benefit is..all I have managed to find out is that if we came off the benefit..if I got a full-time job or something then his claim would remain open.he just wouldn't get any money..so he wouldn't need to fill in a new claim form if we needed to go back on the benefit for some reason.

rogerblack

sugarplumfairy wrote: »

I.which we've just had a new letter about that contradicts itself by saying that you can do 16 hrs a week and earn £20 or 52 weeks and earn £97..that's me confused!!!

As permitted work, you can:
Earn 20 pounds a week with no limit in hours, with no time limit.
If any week you earn more than 20 pounds (and they don't agree to average it below that) - then you are doing 'permitted work higher level'.
This means that you can only do 16 hours a week, and earn no more than 16*NMW.
(about 100 pounds).
Also along with the PWHL - if you are in the work-related group, you can only do this for 52 weeks after your first earning >20 pounds a week.
Then you must take a year break (during which you can do PWLL)

mikey_bach

russell1936 wrote: »

.
I have been offered 2 hours per week paid work at £8.80 per hour. Will I be allowed to keep this (will it be disregarded) or will some or all of it
Thanks

You can as a partner earn £20 per week of ESA IR and this will not effect his claim, if you earn any more then it will come off his ESA

eg you earn £28 per week £20 will be disregarded and the £8 will come off the ESA.....

as for your housing benefit
£5 for a single person, £10 for a couple, £20 for certain disabled people, £25 for lone parents

so either £10 or £20, you would have to check with them

mikey_bach

sugarplumfairy wrote: »

I've also found it nigh on impossible to find out any information about the joint claimant (me) e.g how much my part of the benefit is..all I have managed to find out is that if we came off the benefit..if I got a full-time job or something then his claim would remain open.he just wouldn't get any money..so he wouldn't need to fill in a new claim form if we needed to go back on the benefit for some reason.

unfortunately this is correct, but you may be able to get working tax credits to boast your house hold income

pmlindyloo

mikey_bach wrote: »

You can as a partner earn £20 per week of ESA IR and this will not effect his claim, if you earn any more then it will come off his ESA

eg you earn £28 per week £20 will be disregarded and the £8 will come off the ESA.....

as for your housing benefit
£5 for a single person, £10 for a couple, £20 for certain disabled people, £25 for lone parents

so either £10 or £20, you would have to check with them

Have been puzzling about this.

If the OP and partner are still on income based ESA does this in itself entitle them to the maximum HB and CT support available?

Confused!

Perhaps Housing Benefit Officer will know.