Can you earn any money on benefits?

[lurchermummy]

I'm helping someone write a book - they are on benefits (not UC) including some disability allowances (not sure what). She tells me she can't earn ANY money from selling her book or she will lose her benefits. Realistically it's unlikely to be a big seller but it does seem unfair. Is there any way round this? Could she accept voluntary donations for example?

There is something called permitted work on esa if you google.

Pip is not means tested.

If it's pip, then you can earn whatever you like

Most benefits disregard personal pension contributions in the calculation of income, either wholly or partially.
UC is 100% disregard, and I think ESA is 50% disregard. So she could put any earnings in a personal pension to limit income calculations, but she would need to check the disregard rates for this as different benefits have different disregard rates. Anyone not in paid employment you can contribute up to £2880 into a pension each financial year which is topped up to £3600 by tax relief (even if you don't pay tax).

If it's PIP, she can earn money but all other benefits can be effected.

If she is in the group who doesn't have to work, she could make enquiries about whether she could do this under permitted work.

You have to get the agreement that it is permitted work BEFORE you do it.

It will almost certainly (don't know for sure) count as a big enough change in circumstances that it may trigger her move to Universal Credit though so it's really worth getting some expert advice before taking the chance.

If she moves to UC because of a change, she could lose money (or not, but a lot of disabled people are worse off rather than better off).

I know it is a ridiculous situation, but the benefit system is set up in a way that penalises disabled people if they attempt to do any work by making even attempting it too risky for the most part.

All the talk from the govt about wanting to get disabled people back into work is nonsense.

It might also trigger a review of her needing to be in the doesn't have to look for a job group as it could be seen as proof she feels able to undertake work which would cost her money & force her into job hunting.

She could also transfer the rights to the royalties for her book to another family member or friend...

But would she lose the benefits forever? Surely the royalities would just become her income source if enough? Didn't think PIP would be affected and surely its a good thing?

PIP is not affected.
You can have a full time job & still get PIP.
It is awarded based on your needs relating to your disability/health to help you in your everyday life.

If you only get PIP & nothing else, there is nothing to stop you trying to earn money.

It's the rest of someones benefits you need to check up on.
Housing benefit, ESA or whichever legacy benefits are the ones that can be changed.

If on legacy benefits & nothing changes, a claimant will have transitional protection when moved onto UC (everyone is supposed to be moved onto it within the next couple of years).
That would mean that as long as nothing changed, they would receive the same amount of money until the rate of UC for someone in their position rose to the same level which could be several years.

If a change the DWP count as big enough happens, this can trigger a move to UC.
UC pays different rates.
Some people are better off on UC, some people are not & nobody on Mumsnet can tell you which they would be.

You wouldn't lose benefits forever, but could be on a different rate which could be lower.
I know people who have lost almost £100 a week after moving to UC.
If they hadn't moved, they would have still been getting that extra money.

Once you start a move to UC, you cannot undo it & go back to legacy benefits.

The rules are different on different benefits, and according to other factors on the same benefit, so it's impossible to say. Most allow a small amount of income though.

If she's on UC and has limited capability for work she can work up to 16 hours and earn up to £152 pw without any loss of benefit, if she's on ESA she needs to fill in a form PW1 first but should still be able to earn the same amount. And on UC, she may be entitled to a work allowance that means the a chunk of earnings will be ignored, but how much again depends on circumstances.

She could go on to entitledto.co.uk and do a benefit check to see how she would be affected. And she can check if she'd be better off on UC, too.