ESA, permitted work and p/t study

Looking for a little guidance on the following scenario, please:
Client (50+) is in the support group for ESA and is unlikely to be eligible for PIP. He has the opportunity of doing some paid work on an initial 12 month contract for less than 16 hours (2 days per week) at the national living wage, so should be below the threshold. His potential employer has also offered to pay for a college course for him for one day per week. He will not be paid to attend, but his fees will be funded by his employer.
Without the day at college, he should fall within the permitted work rules. Conversely, without the work he would be a part-time student and still eligible for IR ESA. However, with the combination of the two, alarm bells are ringing as to number of hours etc. I don’t think the attendance at college is a term of his employment but is an attempt by the employer to skill him up. I don’t think this is a traineeship (due to age), sandwich course or apprenticeship or any other form of work experience it is two “separate” activities albeit with a link
Has anyone come across anything like this before? If so how was it perceived by the DWP. The work and course is not inconsistent with the WCA decision so should be okay on that front but I can’t find anything about combining hours when studying and working other than sandwich courses etc.
Thoughts or steering greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

Chrissum - 07 January 2020 10:30 AM

Looking for a little guidance on the following scenario, please:
Client (50+) is in the support group for ESA and is unlikely to be eligible for PIP. He has the opportunity of doing some paid work on an initial 12 month contract for less than 16 hours (2 days per week) at the national living wage, so should be below the threshold. His potential employer has also offered to pay for a college course for him for one day per week. He will not be paid to attend, but his fees will be funded by his employer.
Without the day at college, he should fall within the permitted work rules. Conversely, without the work he would be a part-time student and still eligible for IR ESA. However, with the combination of the two, alarm bells are ringing as to number of hours etc. I don’t think the attendance at college is a term of his employment but is an attempt by the employer to skill him up. I don’t think this is a traineeship (due to age), sandwich course or apprenticeship or any other form of work experience it is two “separate” activities albeit with a link
Has anyone come across anything like this before? If so how was it perceived by the DWP. The work and course is not inconsistent with the WCA decision so should be okay on that front but I can’t find anything about combining hours when studying and working other than sandwich courses etc.
Thoughts or steering greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

I’ve not seen it linked but I’ve see a p/t student doing p/t work that aggregated to 28 hours a week and ESA were happy to pay.

Thanks Dan, that’s helpful to know. Can I assume a 50/50 split in the hours?

I don’t think you’d have to worry about splitting the hours. One regulation deals with permitted work, the other with the full-time student exclusion from ESA. As long as your client remains within the limits for both, I can’t see that there can be a problem (apart from the lack of precise definition as to whether a course of education is full time or part time). Usual approach on the latter is that whatever the course describes itself as is what applies.

Thanks Paul. That was my initial line of thinking but them the spidey-sense started tingling so I thought I’d chuck it out here to see if anyone had experienced this. I’m going to encourage my client to discuss this with ESA with clear emphasis that attendance on the course is not a term of the employment.

Yes, that’s probably the best idea.