is voluntary work worth doing?

I have a bit of a dilemma regarding whether or not to write to the DWP for permission to do a few hours helping students with their English. I used to be a teacher but had to retire in 1992 following a brain tumour(removed, obviously) and subsequent epilepsy which left me with memory/concentration/minor seizure problems that prevent me from doing any paid work. I'm on IC and DLA(middle rate care, low rate mobility. I've been studying part-time (languages) and would like to help overseas students living here to improve their English. The local college are prepared to let me sit with students but I fear that the DWP might take this as a sign that I can actually go back to full time teaching.
Reading other cases on the forum gives me the impression that the DWP is akin to the Gestapo and should not be given the slightest pretext for stopping someone's benefit and that any application to do voluntary work, such as the one I'm considering is tantamount to a signed confession that I am a malingering fraud. Any advice, please.

I can only give my personal experience, but I was in a similar position. I was informed by a volunteering organistion that a voluntary work agreement system is in place for some charity's/company's and the DWP. If you did any work for one of these particpating company's / charity's, they notified the DWP and sorted out all your paperwork. But I found very few places were signed up to it.

The idea behind the scheme was to prevent people from carrying out charity work and then getting their benefits stopped.


In the end I gave up. But what really did concern me was the DWP's attitude when I asked them about doing voluntary work. They started to question me about income. I decided to leave well alone. Saying that, I've come across charity's screaming out for people and when I've approached them to ask if they could square it up with the DWP, they just went silent and said oh well, we cant help.

Organisations like that are missing out on a lot of peoples time, so they cant want the voluntary workers all that bad otherwise they would help out a little in return.

Hi Alan,

I'm afraid there probably isn't a straightforward answer to your question.

Voluntary work has to be work that it is reasonable to do without remuneration. So one of the issues might be whether other people would be paid for doing similar work with foreign students.

If you were doing, for example, learning support for children with special needs that might be more straightforward.

Do take a look at our guide 'Caution it may not count as voluntary work' in the members area.

Good luck,

Steve

Please be very careful if you are receiving a Teacher's Medical Retirement Pension. The recently changed rules are utterly draconian, and they will get you off it any way they can. They are also run by ATOS!!! Best wishes, Lainie