My client started work, under 16 hours, and was under the impression that he did not have to disclose. I have the recent case law on that, but my question is: he was working self-employed and has submitted his annual statement to the IR. It averages out at £46 per week but he is unable to give details of earnings for each week of the period in question, because he was paid at the end of a job but had to offset expenses against what he received. I understand that employed earnings cannot be averaged for permitted work: each week must be considered seperately, but is there any provision for averaging self-employed earnings?

I was actually under the impression he would have to disclose, would be interested if you have a reference to that somewhere I can read through.

I also have a client who's fall through the latter problem with being self employed and has an interview under caution next year due to this that we're currently looking into.

Averaging of earnings over an appropriate cycle is allowed under paras 2(b) and 3 of Reg' 17 of the Incapacity for Work Gen' Regs 1995.

Permitted work needs to be notified but the notice requirements differ according to which type of permitted work is being undertaken.

R(IB)4/05 states that the information received about permitted work must make it unambiguously clear that disclosure is required.

There is also an argument that the non-disclosure did not cause the overpayment if the client was otherwise within the PW rules, because benefit would have continued to be paid for the first 26 weeks.