Work for people who are sick or disabled

You are not prevented from working if you are sick or disabled but if you are on certain benefits there are some restrictions on the work you can do.

Permitted work

If you are getting incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance or national insurance credits or income support because of incapacity for work you are allowed to do some permitted work.

You do not need the permission of a doctor to do permitted work but you should tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if you are working. 

Types of permitted work

You have a choice of five permitted work options depending on your circumstances:

1. Permitted Work Lower Limit - under this option you can earn up to £20 a week for an unlimited period.
2. If you are exempt from the personal capability assessment - you can work for an unlimited period, if the work is for less than 16 hours a week and your earnings do not exceed £88.50 a week after deductions.
3. Permitted Work Higher Limit - you can work for up to 16 hours a week but your earnings must not exceed £88.50 a week after deductions. This is allowed for a 52 week period.  After doing 52 weeks work there must be a gap of at least 52 weeks before another 52 weeks work is permitted. 
4. Supported permitted work - if you choose this work option you must be supervised by someone who is employed by a public or local authority or voluntary organisation which provides or finds work for people with disabilities.  Guidance suggests that supported permitted work is work done by people who have a long term disability that has had "a significant impact on their ability to learn or sustain a traditional job which will always, or for a number of years, prevent them from working more than a few hours each week". It should also be work that a person can do only with the support and supervision of someone other than their employer and be supervised by someone employed by a public or local authority or voluntary organisation which provides or finds work for people with disabilities. The support worker must direct and oversee the performance of the worker regularly and the supervision must be more than the normal support provided in the workplace by employers. You cannot earn more than £88.50 a week
5. Work done as part of a treatment programme done under medical supervision whilst someone is an in-patient or regularly attending as an out-patient of a hospital or similar institution. Again the limit is £88.50 per week.

Income support and other means tested benefits

If you are on income support, housing benefit or council tax benefit because you are incapable of work you can also do permitted work but any earnings which exceed your earnings disregards (£5, £10, £20 or £25 per week depending on circumstances) will be deducted from your income support.

Other allowed work

The following kinds of work are also allowed:

• care of a relative or domestic tasks carried out in your own home
• work done as a councillor
• any activity in an emergency, to protect another person, or to prevent serious damage to property or livestock
• duties as a member of the DLA Advisory Board or as a ‘disability member’ of an appeal tribunal – one day a week is allowed
• an approved work trial arranged in writing with the employer by the DWP (or an organisation providing services to the DWP) for which you will receive no wages
• self-employed work done whilst you are 'test trading' for up to 26 weeks with help from a self-employment provider arranged by Jobcentre Plus.

What about the minimum wage?

Generally if you do permitted work you should be paid the minimum wage for any work you are allowed to do. There may be some exceptions to this for certain work situations. For more information on this see the guide produced by the Department For Business, Enterprise And Regulatory Reform on the minimum wage in the more help and information section below.

Employment and support allowance

Employment and support allowance (ESA) will replace incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claimants from October 2008. Existing IB and IS claimants will eventually move onto the new scheme though as yet there is no date for this.

ESA will have a contributory-related allowance (like incapacity benefit) and income-related allowance (like income support). You will be allowed to do permitted work under the new scheme but, regardless of whether you are on contributory or income-related allowance, you will be allowed to earn up to £88.50 per week.

What about Disability Living Allowance?

If you are on Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and are not claiming one of the other benefits mentioned in this factsheet there are no restrictions placed on the work you do providing you satisfy the DLA rules. You should inform the disability benefits unit if you start work.

Voluntary Work

You are allowed to do voluntary work if you are getting  incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance, national insurance credits or income support because of incapacity for work.

This voluntary work can be for anyone other than a close relative - parent, parent-in-law, step-parent, son, son-in-law, daughter daughter-in-law, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, or partner of any of these.

You must not be paid for your work, other than expenses ‘reasonably incurred by [you] in connection with that work’. Permitted expenses can include travel, meals, child minding or the costs of caring for another dependant, equipment needed for work and use of a telephone. You may be treated as a volunteer if you are doing community service. There is no limit on the number of hours you can volunteer.

If you are getting income support (IS) you are still allowed to do voluntary work. You can do volutary for a charity, voluntary organisation, or any other organisation or individual.

If you are paid anything other than actual expenses, you are treated as being in paid work, and excluded from IS if you work 16 hours or more a week (24 hours or more if it is your partner who is the volunteer).

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) may also consider that it is unreasonable for you to provide your services for free in some cases and assume that you have earnings, whether you have been paid or not. This is known as having notional income.

Where can I get more help and information?

You can get help at a local advice centre, such as a citizen's advice bureau. You can get more information about this from our factsheet F15, Finding a local advice centre, which is available at www.disabilityalliance.org/f15.htm.

Disability Alliance have also produced a number of publications to buy on benefits and work. These are:

• benefits! where do I stand - A guide to moving into work for people with mental health problems.
• For information on ESA see our factsheets at www.disabilityalliance.org/esa.htm.

You can also obtain copies of our guides or factsheets by contacting Disability Alliance on  020 7247 8776 (voice and minicom) or by fax on 020 7247 8765.

The Department For Business, Enterprise And Regulatory Reform has produced guidance on the relationship between permitted work and the minimum wage.

This guidance is confusingly entitled "The Minimum Wage and Therapeutic Work" but is still relevant nonetheless. It is useful for employers in the public or voluntary sector who wish to employ people who have an incapacity or disability but who wish to do permitted work. 

The guide discusses the problems of defining permitted for the purposes of minimum wage legislation and gives examples of situations where the minimum wage may not apply. In section 6 the guide discusses situations where the minimum wage applies but where hours can be divided into measured and unmeasured work.

The Minimum Wage and Therapeutic Work is available at www.berr.gov.uk/files/file11883.pdf.

April 2008