ESA and Working Zero Hours-Problem

stevemLS

I must be simple. If you can do this work, why do you need to rely on benefits at all.

epitome

stevemLS wrote: »

I must be simple. If you can do this work, why do you need to rely on benefits at all.

I thought the answer to that was obvious, he has a zero hours contract, which means that work is not always available to him, so whilst there is no work, he has to rely on benefits.

pmlindyloo

epitome wrote: »

If you are going to earn more than £101 a week you MUST close your ESA claim from the day you start the work

If you are going to work more than 16 hours a week you MUST close your ESA claim from the day you start the work

If you are going to work under 16 hours and earn less than £101 you MUST inform DWP that you have started the work and ask them to send you a PW1 form (AFAIK, PW1 not available from anywhere except the ESA telephone line).

If you close your ESA claim for the above reasons you also will not be eligible for JSA whilst doing the work.

If you then stop the work or your hours are reduced to less than 16 hours a week AND your earnings are less than £101.00 a week ....you can reclaim ESA, declaring the work in your ESA application. Your claim will link within 12 weeks but AFAIK the only linking rule will be in relation to your ESA Conts entitlement, i.e. if you are entitled now to ESA conts you will be still entitled to ESA Conts because of the link....

Despite the link shown above from an HMRC website (not a DWP website) I have never known a new claim of ESA that has linked under the 12 week rule to mean that the 13 week assessment phase can be re-joined i.e. if you have served 6 weeks you only have 7 weeks to go on the new claim, or if you have served 13 weeks you will have 0 weeks to go on the new claim.

I have also never seen a payment of arrears of WRAG or SG jump across -a period where there was no claim open- to the previous claim period and pay for that older claim aswell.


IMHO, the linking af the assement period could be plausible, but I have never witnessed it in action. However I doubt if the arrears or WRAG or SG would also jump across the gap even if there is such a thing as linking the assessment periods.

You would be better off reclaiming ESA than JSA because ESA allows you to keep your earnings of permitted work, JSA would only allow you to keep £20 of your earning.

If you claim JSA you will be required to look for 40 hours of work a week, unless you get an exception from your JSA advisor.
If you carry on with ESA you will obviously need to renew your sicknote.


It's a very interesting qestion you have brought up and the HMRC quote makes it all the more curious..... I will have to try and find out the answer to this.

I have found this link:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/164843/response/410470/attach/html/6/3024%20Annex%203.pdf.html

which seems to suggest that the 12 week linking rule does apply to the assessment phase and the number of weeks already 'served' are counted?

Scroll down to 12 week linking rule number 10.

SJI85

I can do this work as it is a one off, so it would be good to test my capability for work. The contract is zero hours so I am not guaranteed work hence claiming benefits (until I feel better and get ft work).

Being educational support the work is term time only, too.

I would love to have a fixed 16 hour contract (and see how I go) but this is not possible.

You would be better off reclaiming ESA than JSA because ESA allows you to keep your earnings of permitted work, JSA would only allow you to keep £20 of your earning.

If you claim JSA you will be required to look for 40 hours of work a week, unless you get an exception from your JSA advisor.
If you carry on with ESA you will obviously need to renew your sicknote.

If I signed on JSA I was going to seek an exception,mas I know 40 hours is standard. If this exception wasn't granted that would make my decision for me.

I realise that on JSA I can only keep £20. I experienced this last year.

It's a very interesting qestion you have brought up and the HMRC quote makes it all the more curious..... I will have to try and find out the answer to this.

Thanks. It does seem fair that I should effectively be financially disadvantaged because of atos being overburdened. Had I been placed in either group shortly after the 13 weeks there would be problem.