I wonder if anyone has any information that can possibly help me. I have been claiming Incapacity benefit and I have also been doing ‘permitted work’ that is work that permitted by the benefits agency, and earning no more than £88.50 per week. Unfortunately now after 1 year they have told me that I can no longer carry on with this unless i can reduce my pay to £20 per week.
I work as a lecturer - only for a couple of hours - but it keeps me sane. It ensures I get up and interact with others, instead of getting depressed at home. My hourly pay exceeds £20 - so I either give it up, or I give up my benefit. Having cancer has literally cost me thousands in lost earnings and expenses incurred - I cannot afford to give up benefit, and frankly I am not well enough to work more than a few hours a week, as I have secondary cancer, and still experience severe exhaustion. Anyone any ideas of how to get around this?
Just a quick thought -are you claiming DLA under the special rules? Its not means tested,I really think its important to keep getting up and going out in 'our ’ situation.
Jane Tomlinson continued to work while getting DLA under special rules I remember from reading her book the luxury of time
good idea to keep up the work I think
…I am also claiming DLA, and that is not threatened, it is the incapacity benefit that is the problem. Do the special rules apply to Incapacity Benefit?
I think you might be stuck here - I just googled incapacity benefit on direct gov, co.uk basically if you are claiming for more than 52 weeks they start limiting the amount that you can earn…I would check that they are applying the rules correctly and then maybe you should become a volunteer?
First I want to thank you for encouraging me to apply for DLA and blue badge when I did as it was about 4 months ahead of the game. About £800 richer as a result (though would rather be able to walk but that’s another story), so I owe you.
I’m also on IB and recently got ill health retirement (less than £88pw) and apparently that’s OK. I just rechecked the rules on the permitted work and it appears that if you don’t have to attend a medical to verify your entitlement then it should be OK according this this information copied from direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/DG_10020667
You can work:
for earnings of up to and including £20.00 a week for an unlimited period, or
for less than 16 hours a week, on average, with earnings up to and including £88.50 a week for a 52 week period
for less than 16 hours a week, on average, and earn up to and including £88.50 a week for as long as your illness or disability is considered sufficiently severe that you are treated as meeting the threshold of incapacity without undergoing a medical assessment.
Seems silly to penalise for doing a little work to keep yourself sane, but I suppose rules is rules! Good luck and hope you can get it sorted.
…thanks guys, still trying to sort this. I might have found a cancer nurse who will verify that she monitors me in the workplace. The college has shifted my teaching back to March, so no urgency for this. This is a new course (to me!) and (just to be awkward!) I really wonder if I want to do all that work in preparation, planning and the stress that goes with it. Still the same ole conundrum - should i work or give it up. Is retiring part of the acceptance of the disease, and ultimately an acknowledgement of where this goes. - ~I used to find decisions so easy!
Good to hear from you all, but especially those known to me - and Roberta sounds like I am due for a cut!