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Can DWP refuse to let client do permitted work?
Hi,
Can anyone help with this query:
“I have an employee who has recently received a diagnosis of MS and as a result has reduced his hours. To supplement his earnings he has applied for ESA and he was wanting to continue working for us on a permitted work basis.
However the DWP have told him he is ineligible for permitted work as MS is progressive and they are concerned continuing to work will worsen his condition.
Can the DWP do this? They seem to have taken zero account of the mental health impact being told to give up work will have and the resultant impact this will have on his MS”
I can’t find anything in CPAG except that ESA claimants must inform the DWP in advance. Can this employee challenge the decision not to let him do permitted work?
Many thanks in advance
(If there has been a decision here at all) it’s not a decision to refuse him (certain) work, it’s a decision to refuse his claim to ESA. By the sounds of it on the basis that his work doesn’t meet the definition of permitted/exempt. You can challenge that by the normal route.
I can’t see any discretion in the regs
Hi,
Can anyone help with this query:
“I have an employee who has recently received a diagnosis of MS and as a result has reduced his hours. To supplement his earnings he has applied for ESA and he was wanting to continue working for us on a permitted work basis.
However the DWP have told him he is ineligible for permitted work as MS is progressive and they are concerned continuing to work will worsen his condition.
Can the DWP do this? They seem to have taken zero account of the mental health impact being told to give up work will have and the resultant impact this will have on his MS”
I can’t find anything in CPAG except that ESA claimants must inform the DWP in advance. Can this employee challenge the decision not to let him do permitted work?
Many thanks in advance
A claimant has to meet one of the criteria in regulation 39 of the ESA Regs 2013 to avoid exclusion from ESA but I don’t see that DWP have any discretion over the type of work that a claimant chooses to do, provided that they meet one of the criteria.