Benefit Advice

[Yorkshiregirlie]

I desperately need some advice and how someone here has the answer. Currently, I claim ESA and also receive housing and council tax benefits. Because of the fibro and numerous other conditions, I'm unable to go out to work. However, there is a possibility that I may be offered some admin work (to do from home) of up to a max of 10 hours per week. As I have been living a hand to mouth existence for some years, this would allow me to live without financial fear for the first time, but I am unsure as to whether or not I will be allowed to do this. Will the benefits cease if I do? I really don't want to phone the DWP as I don't trust them to give me an honest reply and am also terrified they will use my call as an excuse to stop any/all of my benefits. Any sound advice would be so much appreciated.

[Hidden]

I think that i would check with the CAB they will know.

Sue x

[Yorkshiregirlie in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, Sue. Ours is rarely open these days due to cuts but I will give them a try.

[Sewnsew]

Hi, you might find some information here

benefitsandwork.co.uk

[Sewnsew]

Or maybe here

disabilityrightsuk.org

[Yorkshiregirlie in reply to Sewnsew]

Thanks for this tip. This is where I went originally and I think I can do up to 16 hours as long as the weekly earning (after tax) isn't more than £104 BUT I have been made to feel so afraid of asking them anything in case they penalise me that I'm worried about trusting anything I see anymore. Pathetic, but true. However, admin have been on and are forwarding me a booklet about this so, hopefully, there will be a definitive answer there for me. I hope! Thanks, again, for your quick response.

[Mdaisy]

Hello Yorkshiregirlie,

If you email using [e-mail] then we, FibroAction we can supply a guide about permitted work if you.

I look forward to hearing from you

Best Wishes

Emma

FibroAction Administrator

[Yorkshiregirlie in reply to Mdaisy]

Thank you, Emma, doing it now.

[TheAuthor]

I just wanted to genuinely wish you all the best of luck whatever you decide to do.

All my hopes and dreams for you

Ken

[Yorkshiregirlie in reply to TheAuthor]

Thanks so much for your good wishes. Having support means a lot.

[trekster22]

You can under the permitted work rules do the following;

gov.uk/employment-support-a...

Claiming ESA if you work

Your ESA isn’t usually affected if you either:

earn up to £20 a week

work for less than 16 hours a week and earn up to £104 a week, for 52 weeks or less (or for any length of time if you’re in the support group)

This is called ‘permitted work’.

You can also do ‘supported permitted work’ and earn up to £104 a week. This must be part of a treatment programme, or supervised by someone from a local council or voluntary organisation whose job it is to arrange work for disabled people.

There’s no limit to the number of hours per week or length of time you can do ‘supported permitted work’ for.

You must tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if you start doing permitted work. They’ll send you form PW1 to fill in and send back to them.

Any volunteer work you do needs to be reported. It normally doesn’t affect your ESA.

[Yorkshiregirlie in reply to trekster22]

Thank you very much for this information. Really useful.

[douthwaite]

Be careful in your chose as if they find you can do any kind of work even unpaid they will think you can work. Its a hard one to find a answer to. If you make more than £20 they will deduct you payments by the amount. They are trying to save more by getting people on hardship payments to work and that's the trap most people are falling into.

[Yorkshiregirlie in reply to douthwaite]

This is so confusing, Douthwaite, as some of the stuff I've read says that it's okay to earn (after tax) £104 per week, others say £20. What a minefield!

[douthwaite in reply to Yorkshiregirlie]

it is as if you can do 16 hours you can do more. They told my sister in law she could work 16 hours.So she started work at Darlington hospital . When the check up on her they found she had done 16 hours but stop her money as they said she could work more hours.She took them to a tribunal and won by saying it was the job centre that had told her she was ok to work but they never refunded the back money they stopped will they investigated her and she lost her job.

[Yorkshiregirlie]

Oh hell, I'm even more confused now. They say you can do it but then penalise for doing so. I just pray this wicked lot are voted out and the next government actually cares what happens to those forced to use benefits.