Charitable or voluntary payments made for participation in research studies

DWP had issued guidance ‘Doing the Right Thing’ that was used by their internal research programme for the past 6 years until recently when it was removed from the website. The guidance stated that a one-off payment for not more than one day’s involvement in research should be treated as capital and therefore ignored providing the capital limit was not exceeded.

Does any one know of any case law that has allowed one off payment for participation as a subject of research to be treated as capital or as a charitable or voluntary gift on the basis that the participation was for the public good?

This posting is not specific to ESA as it is not really about incapacity but that is a particularly tricky issue in the circumstances.

Thanks folks
Judy Scott

There is case law to say that a one off payment is likely to be capital as opposed to a reoccuring payment being income - such as R(SB) 29/85.

But possibly the fact that the payment is in respect of a particular period makes it more likely to be income?

And then there is the other issue of whether it is earnings?

I can’t see the public good argument working - otherwise lots of people could argue that their earnings should be disregarded!

Sorry, more questions than answers - but I’d be interested to know if you discover anything

Jane