Due to financial pressure, wife wants to seek work

Good Morning
Can anyone help? I’ve been on ESA for 18 months. I have ME and severe depression.

We have run the gauntlet of the benefit system and with the first class help of this site have finally got benefits and DLA of medium rate care and lower rate mobility.

But our finances are still in a mess.

My wife has recently turned 60 and now gets £60 state pension which is deducted from our benefits so I think we now get about £30 a week benefit for her .

As she has to look after me throughout the day she can’t take a job, but it may be possible for her to find some freelance work she could do at home.

It wouldn’t be regular and it would pay much , but at the moment every little helps. Is there any way she could declare any work and payment she gets.

We don’t want to have any problems with working and benefits and the last thing we need is to be called benefit thieves. So my question is does anyone know how we can do this legally.

I’ve rung the DWP, spoke to a nice kid who had no idea.

Thanks for your help

If she earns any money, she will have to declare it to the DWP. If any of the benefits you get are means-tested, they will be reduced.

Here's where I'm going to give a plug for another website - Moneysavingexpert . They have forums which discuss things like how to top up your income, for example suggestions for work you might do, and how to economise. Beware their benefits, disability and discussion forums, though. There are some lovely people there, but there are also a number of persistent anti-claimant trolls.

Thanks for your reply.
She doesn't have to look for ideas for work as she is a gifted copywriter. So she can look for freelance work.

The problem is its not regular work and the last thing we need to do is stop her benefits and then find that she hasn't any work.

But on the other side she is concerned that if she looks for work she will be in breach of receiving benefits.

I'm sure this is a problem many people have. The goverment say we should look for work, but they don't make it easy to do it legally.

If anone can point me in the right direction as to how to get a clear way forward on this I'd be greatful

Thanks

Unfortunately, if you're on means-tested benefits, all you can do is to declare it and get your benefits adjusted.

Thanks for your help I think I'll write to DWP to make sure we are safe before she does anything. Then they can't say we tried to do it underhand .

Problem is how long they will take to reply. In the past its been weeks or months.

Once again thanks for your help