ESA Permitted Work Selling Crafts

KHud

Hello everyone,

I'm in the Support Group for ESA and also get both components of PIP. I had to give up work as a researcher a couple of years ago due to illness and I'm starting to really miss having my own income and sense of achievement and purpose from working. So, I'd like to try to do something that works around my conditions, as they're variable, and think that selling craft items that I make might be the way forward.

I think that I can do this as Permitted Work under ESA, as I can't see I would manage over the maximum 16 hours a week of work or probably earn more than the upper income limit (if I did then I imagine I'd have to transfer to Working Tax Credits). I've read a bit about test trading, but I'm not sure that that's right for me.

I wondered if anyone has tried to sell any craft work as Permitted Work and how this worked for you? I had a look at the form from the DWP and it looks very geared towards a normal, contracted-type jobs. Since income from selling crafts is likely to be very variable, how did this work for you in terms of telling the DWP?

At this stage I'm just interested in finding out about Permitted Work since I have no experience of it and thought I'm likely to get clearer answers on here than trying to speak to Job Centre Plus! Any insight would be very much appreciated! Thank you.