On ESA + PIP, allowed work?

We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

jospanner

Hi,

I am in a position to take a bit of low-paying work on, as a self-employed person, but the idea is that I would be paid a lump-sum for about 3 months of very occasional part-time work.

According to CAB, ESA permitted work is:

"Any job can be permitted work as long as each week you're working under 16 hours, and earning less than £131.50."

If I average it out, I would definitely be under this amount. But, I'm not being paid a monthly wage or on fixed hours. My concern is that I'd get the lump sum in my account, and suddenly it looks like I have been paid that much for one month's work which would be a super well paying job or something, when I don't!

Has anyone else had any experience with this sort of thing? Or any ideas of where I can go with this?

BenefitsTrainingCo

jospanner ,

It will help if you can keep records of how much you are paid and for what. It isn't just about what goes into your bank account. For example, will you be invoicing for your pay? If so, you can make it clear on the invoice that it is for 3 months' work.

If you are self-employed then your net profit is worked out by taking off reasonable expenses, income tax, NI and half of any pension contributions you make off your self-employed earnings.

Averaging is achieved by looking at an appropriate period after you take up your self-employment. For example, in your case an appropriate period might be 3 months or 6 months.

However, what you really need to establish is evidence that the money you get in your bank account represents 3 months of work. So, keep a record of what work you do, when you do it, and if possible get something in writing (a contract to provide services, for example, or an invoicing system that makes it clear you invoice every 3 months).

Hope this helps. The only other thing to say is that with ESA, once you declare to the DWP that you are doing permitted work, be prepared for the fact that they may reassess you. That doesn't mean you'll lose your benefit, it's just something they are quite likely to do, especially if you haven't worked for a while.

Will