No Medical !!

Well people the dreded brown envelope finally hit the doormat after two months of me sending in the form .

I have been placed directly in the work related activity group but TBH I can't see an employer beeing interested nor me being able to manage working for one but I might have a stab at the self employment bit. I have a background in engineering and have a few ideas for disabled sporting equipment given the right help that might sell on the internet.

how would the effect my good weeks bad weeks ? If I say I'm going self employed is that it after a set period am I on my own as regards income ? There used to be a DWA insted of DLA is that still there ?

A big thanks to the forum and site for help so far.

Rob

Hi Rob

Well done for getting straight into the WRAG.

If you are considering self-employment and worried about your benefits/income there are self-employment benefits available to people with limited-capacity for work, but I would strongly recommend seeking face-to-face advice as it does require looking at your individual circumstances. Estimating how much you could be better off is quite complexed as are the rules for updating the DWP with earnings.

It is possible that your work programme provider may have a scheme that could assist you but I would still get independent advice.

Good luck

Derek

Rob Roy wrote:

Well people the dreded brown envelope finally hit the doormat after two months of me sending in the form .

I have been placed directly in the work related activity group but TBH I can't see an employer beeing interested nor me being able to manage working for one but I might have a stab at the self employment bit. I have a background in engineering and have a few ideas for disabled sporting equipment given the right help that might sell on the internet.

how would the effect my good weeks bad weeks ? If I say I'm going self employed is that it after a set period am I on my own as regards income ? There used to be a DWA insted of DLA is that still there ?

A big thanks to the forum and site for help so far.

Rob

I think the last benefit your taking of is now called working tax credits and the premium for being disabled is over 2k get exp-ert advice not just on disability but also on being self employed ask your local council they sometimes have advisors the tax people have a helpline too

I have been in the WRAG for over 2 years and registered as self employed for over 18 months when my partner and I started a partnership.
An interesting point is that the tax office say that I can't pay self employed NI stamps as the credits that are given when claiming (contribution based) ESA mean that you can't pay class II stamps as well.
Our partnership made a loss the first year which we expected as we bought equipment so I didn't earn anything. I am only able to work a few hours per week and I declared this to the benefits office. I explained that I draw no wages for the work I do and they have put me in the under £20 per week group which you can stay in indefinitely. They don't seem to get it that I shouldn't be in any income group because I don't earn anything at all!
Any way, my understanding is that you can earn around £93 per week for a year without it affecting your ESA but you must then either revert to under £20 per week or your ESA will stop.
All they've done to me is send me forms asking how many hours I've worked and what type of work I was doing. The periods from the forms frequently overlapped and I felt I was saying the same thing over and over again so keep careful records of what you tell them.
Sometimes, the reply was no hours and doing nothing.
Other than that I haven't had any problems with them and they haven't asked to see acounts but I suspect that they've checked my self assessment tax return without telling me.
My advice would be to try it first and see whether you can physically do the work before committing yourself because I have been unable to work for some months now and yet the forms keep coming asking how many hours I've worked....