What can I earn while partner claims ESA?

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My partner claims income related Employment and Support Allowance. Been trying to find out if there's an amount (I assume it would be small but that's not a problem) that I can earn without effecting his benefit. If so how would I declare it and is it too complicated to make it worth it?

Surely any money you can earn is worth earning?? You will not lose more than you earn I'm sure.

£20/week of your income is completely disregarded in his ESA calculations.

You declare it by informing the Job Centre dealing with his ESA claim - look at his benefit letters for details.

The benefit calculator here is long but very thorough and it is good to get used to using it once a year at least to check that you are getting the correct amount of tax credits (I am assuming you are looking after children) : www.turn2us.org.uk

I would encourage anyone in your situation to get some paid work if you can manage it around housegold responsibilities. Not only does it bring in some more income, but it means your CV will have less of a huge gap when you want to get back to full time work. Also you can simply never know when the government maight decide that OH is fit to work and so stop his ESA even if you and he know that he just can't.

Thanks for your advice debtcamel. That's extremely helpful. I'm going to use the benefit calculator straight away.