Permitted work for hours for unusual gig work

Straight to the law on point - outstanding, thank you!

Hi Flour. I'm finding it hard to interpret DMG 41212 et seq, which I'll quote below. The reason it's an issue for me is that in my self-employed app gig job, some weeks I do no hours or fewer than 8, and sometimes the travel time to and from a job is, let's just say I got pushed over 16 hours the other day on one single day, easily, partly because my bus was delayed. So I figured I couldn't do any more work that week. Other times I've got stuck in traffic and I've gone over time. Most of the time is just travelling to and from a job, while sitting catching up with my reading on the bus/train or talking to family on the phone. It's very nervewracking booking a job and not knowing if I'll be pushed over or indeed if I'm entitled to do a bit 'over' and if so how much. Sitting on a train honestly doesn't feel like work. But somehow it is for the purposes of the Regs.

What frustrates me is that the DMG guide says

"[p]ermitted work
41211 PW is work done for less than 16 hours, or an average of less than 16 hours (see DMG 41213 et seq) in any week"

yet either the 'average' has to mean 'more than 16 hours' or the 'less than 16 hours' seems to be a redundancy. I.E. either it's less than or it's not, right? So they could have just put 'less than 16 hours' and left it at that, but they didn't. So what's the purpose of the 'or an average of less than 16 hours'?

DMG I think then attempts to explain the answer to me at 41213:

" Where no recognizable cycle has been established, it is 1. the number of hours or 2. the average number of hours where the hours worked are likely to fuctuate (sic) a claimant is expected to work in a week1 . 1 ESA Regs, reg 45(8)(a)"

The citation, 45(8)(a) refers to a 'cycle' without explaining. I asked ChatGPT and was told, astonishingly, that it meant a bicycle!

The DMG attempts to give us more info

"41214 Where the number of hours a claimant works fuctuate (sic) and there is a recognizable cycle, it is over one complete cycle of work. This complete cycle includes periods in which the claimant does no work but excludes other absences such as holidays or sickness1 . 1 ESA Regs, reg 45(8)(b)(i)

41215 Where the number of hours a claimant works fuctuate (sic) and there is no recognizable cycle, it is 1. over the fve (sic) week period or 2. any other period to enable the average hours to be decided more accurately immediately before the date of claim, or the date a supersession decision is made1 ."

But I'm finding it very difficult to interpret in my case.

If you or anyone else has any thoughts I'd be really grateful.

Thanks, Jonathan

Thank you - I appreciate it.

In relation to how they would know, I think they could ask me to demonstrate my hours in any given week to be honest: I'm collecting and delivering cars, so the travel time to and from each job, and time on the job, can be demonstrated/evidenced for each job on a 'more likely than not' basis.

It's just that sometimes I don't work at all in a week, and another week I'll do a single job and because of unexpected traffic jams, with time on the bus/train it can take me over 16 hours just in a single day. Another week I might have the option of two jobs which could take me a bit over 8 hours each.

So I feel quite confused about how it all works with the average hours. Someone at DWP told me that 18 was the maximum if it averaged out, but it's not obvious to me how that interpretation itself follows the rules.