ESA & Work - help !

megmog00

Hi everyone, i’ve got a bit of a tricky question & wondered if anyone could shed a bit of light please! 

So i’ve got a bladder disease and had to quit my job in august last year due to the severity of my condition & am now in the ESA support group. I have been running a support page on instagram to put all my extra time to some use! On my page I talk about my experience, daily struggles & the reality of being a young adult with a chronic illness. I’ve been doing this since July 2022. Things are going really well and i’m really enjoying being able to help people like me feel less alone! I’ve recently been approached by a company who want to collaborate with me and have said they would pay me a one off payment of £400 for working with them. I’m over the moon with this offer as I never set up my page with the intention of earning! 

Would I need to tell ESA about this? I know you can only earn up to £152 per week when on ESA.  I really want to take up the offer but I’m worried that this could potentially affect my ESA & I don’t want to end up being innocently caught out for not going about this in the right way! 

If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated! 😊x 

poppy123456

You will need to contact ESA to tell them that you're working. You will need to fill out the PW1 form and return it. As well as the £152/week earnings limit you must make sure you work less than 16 hours per week. https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/working-while-you-claim

megmog00

@poppy123456 thanks for getting back to me, it’s literally just doing a couple of videos so wouldn’t even be more than 2 hours work. I class my page as a hobby & this would just be a collaboration.  

poppy123456

You will still need to tell them because if you don't and they find out (likely they will) then there could be issues.