Permitted Work

A client was advised by DWP that he could do several periods of temporary work under the permitted work higher limit rules, basically staying that the ‘clock starts’ the day he does his first period of work and then stops at the end of the 52 weeks and during that time he could have worked for 4 weeks then stopped and then started another job for a further few weeks and stopped etc etc over this 52 weeks.

I have had a look at CPAG and Disability Rights Handbook and to me it is abit ambigous on this, it could be read that you can only do one period of permitted work which could be upto 52 weeks but that once this job stops regardless of where you are within the 52 weeks you can only do another period of permitted work after a gap of 52 weeks so for example if you worked for 26 weeks and this job ended you then have to wait a further 52 weeks before beginning another period of permitted work

or alternatively it could be read that you can do permitted work up to 52 weeks regardless and that only at the end of the 52 weeks do you have to have a further gap of 52 weeks before you can start permitted work again, therefore allowing you to have multiple jobs within a 52 week period. If someone could clarify this please let me know.

I think it’s the second reading. Changing jobs does not reset the clock. Had a client a while ago, who did a couple of weeks permitted work, then had to stop due to a deterioration. By the time she was ready to try it again 18 months later, it had been well over a year since she last worked, but we concluded DWP were correct to say she would have to wait until the second anniversary of her starting the PW before she could do some more. Eg, see the DMG http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/v08-am08.pdf :

41252 For the purposes of the PWP, a period of specified work begins on the first day on which any specified work is undertaken and continues for a period of 52 weeks, whether or not any further specified work is undertaken during that period1. 1 ESA Regs, reg 45(4)(c)
Example 1
John is in receipt of ESA. On 20.8.09 he starts working for 10 hours a week with earnings of £60.00 a week. This is specified work. John has not previously done any PWK. Therefore his PWP runs from 20.8.09 to 18.8.10. John last works on 20.11.09 but his PWP continues until 18.8.10 even if no further work is done.

The client has said that the permitted work he will do is likely to be freelance work and will mean that while he will only ever do 8 hours or less a week, the work is quite well paid and some weeks he may earn more than the £97.50 limit but other weeks he will be paid less or nothing, he asks if the DWP can average out his earnings over a period of time so that on average he is earning under the £97.50 a week limit. If the DWP treat his work as self employment then under the normal income rules they would be able to average out the income over a more appropriate period but I just wanted to make sure that the permitted work rule would allow for him to do this?