Has anyone lost benefits doing 'Permitted Work'?

I have had a real battle to prove my entitlement to ESA, but I was eventually successful. Also, I now have a proper diagnosis of my condition and am receiving treatment.

Out of the blue, I've been offered a bit of admin work (just work, not a job as such), and am in a complete tizz!

On the one hand, it may be something I could do (a few hours on my PC at home a week). On the other hand, I fear the DWP would jump on this as me being 'capable of work', and stop my benefits.

Has anyone had any experience of doing permitted work while on ESA or IB, and what happened?

Permitted work…. Never again !

I did this once under IB and never again. Got DWP letter of permission to go ahead with PW, all fine for a few weeks then DWP stopped my benefits as they said I was working over 16 hours a week…. My benefits stopped for 3 Months, Took a long time to find out why they did this…… They wrongly decided to include my lunch break as a working hour but the stupid thing was that even by including a lunch break it was still under 16 hours a week and under permitted earnings! During this time my Father died and I have a lot of hatred for DWP.

The decision maker just would not admit she made a mistake and I had to take extreme measures to win but it took a lot out of me and I have been victimised by the same DM almost yearly now. The last incident was when the same decision maker yet again decided to wrongly stop my benefits but lo and behold my previous PCA medical records were also “unfortunately destroyed” destroyed on the exact same time. No way was this a coincidence.

I wrote four registered delivery letters to DWP Chief Executive, never once did he reply!

Complained to ICE but they banned me phoning via text relay and have essentially shut me up.

My MP nt…..Useless.

My local CAB? Totally corrupt.

The PHSO Also totally corrupt. I can say this as I’ve recently received a letter direct from her.

So Aslan you need to carefully consider if doing permitted work is the right thing for you to do. Normally I am a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) type of guy but I got badly screwed doing this. If it goes against you then believe me it becomes a living hell.

Good Luck.
King Al
Big Fan of the Equality Act 2010
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=view&catid=13&id=54062

Modedit: Names removed from post. Gordon

Hi Aslan

I failed a PCA test because I was doing things like studying at home on a computer.

I'm not suggesting that you turn down permitted work if you want to do it, but you need to be aware that it can (and probably will) be used against you at your next assessment.

Regards

Derek

I did permitted work a year ago and although I didn’t get reassessed it is classed as a trigger event for IB. That means nothing may happen except them looking at your file but if they decide to then you would get reassessed. If you where assessed on the old descriptors then you could probably assume that you would be reassessed.(not there are far more qualified people here than me to answer this but this is just what I found out)

Don't forget that for the new WCA being able to wash, dress and make a cup of tea makes you fit for work on mental health descriptors in the eyes of ATOS. Off the top of my head I cannot think of a workplace that doesn't require these qualities.

People with physical disabilities such as mobility could also find it harder to pass the WCA as assumptions could be made about travelling to work or moving around in the workplace.

So much for encouraging people on disability benefits to get back to work!

Derek4 wrote:

Don't forget that for the new WCA being able to wash, dress and make a cup of tea makes you fit for work on mental health descriptors in the eyes of ATOS.

If someone said on ESA form that they needed constant verbal encouragement at home to do these tasks and repeated same at the medical should they not, will they score points for ESA?