Self employed permitted work esa support group

Serendwr

Hi, I'm plucking up the courage to apply for permitted work as I have a great opportunity to do some occasional mentoring and coaching. But I'm struggling to fill out the forms and also understand how your income is assessed (I used to be self employed so have my old spreadsheets for tax and someone to help me with that but I know the penalties are high if I make a mistake so want to understand it before starting. Also concerned it'll trigger a reassessment which would affect my health and prevent me from being able to do this work

Pippa_Alumni

Morning @Serendwr, sounds like a great opportunity! I think you're doing the best thing by doing your research before you get started. 

There's some info here on self-employment for disabled people, and also some guidelines and thresholds on permitted work here, although there doesn't seem to be any information on how your income is actually assessed, as you said, other than this website which states that your earnings are ignored/disregarded in future benefits calculations.

You might also like to take a look at this past discussion on permitted work, and the advice that the Benefits Advisor provided. Hope this helps and best of luck!

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hello Serendwr. I agree with PippaScope above that doing your research beforehand is essential. As well as the discussion referred to above, in which I gave the link to the Turn2us information on permitted work, there is a link here to the new Permitted Work form, the PW1, which is now available on the DWP website: www.disabilityrightsuk.org/appeals-and-mandatory-reconsideration. You can download this form, and fill it in with details of your permitted work, so that the DWP know exactly what you're doing. If you are on ESA, and your work is treated as permitted work, then all the earnings from it will be disregarded. Different rules apply if you are on Universal Credit - if you are, then get back to us before you do anything! I have looked in lots of places for detail on the treatment of self employed earnings and permitted work - there isn't much information available, so I think you will need to ask the DWP for steerage 'in principle' on this. Make sure you do it in writing! In my opinion, the rules for the treatment of earnings from self employment which apply across the range of means tested benefits (not tax credits though) should be relevant, in that the DWP will want to know your net earnings, which effectively means net profit. This consists of your self-employed earnings minus reasonable expenses, income tax and NI contributions, and half of any premium paid in respect of a personal pension scheme which is eligible for tax relief.
Remember that your work must be under 16 hours and your earnings must not exceed £120pw. It's also vital to ensure that the DWP cannot infer that your condition must have 'improved' to the extent that you are now able to do this work, so you need to be sure that you still satisfy the same descriptors that enabled you to go on to ESA in the first place. Keep your hours and earnings irregular, so that it's clear you are not operating a business, but doing casual 'as and when' work. Sorry this is so long! Get back to us if you need any further steerage before you take the plunge!

Regards,

Jayne