Voluntary work on ESA

A friend of mine who is on ESA (as well as pip) has a face to face wca assessment in a couple of weeks. She's in the work related activity group and has a work focussed interview next week (ie before the face to face).

She has been doing voluntary work 2 afternoons per week for a number of months in a charity bookshop. She really wants to continue doing this for the sake of keeping her brain going, self esteem, mental health etc, but she is completely done in by it. She wants to be able to work but this experience is telling her she just may not be able to manage it.

She is worried and I am worried about how she should handle talking about this at this at the face to face due to the way they use anything you tell them (I am myself in process of appealing a recent disallowance of my ESA so I know only too well they will use banal things to 'prove' capability never mind if you say you are working in a bookshop twice a week...)

Are there any rules specifically around voluntary work & ESA which my friend needs to be aware of and any resources which might support her in negotiating this terrain? I couldn't find anything already answering these questions - my apologies if there are.... Thank you - Alison

Alison

There are no "rules" in regard voluntary work and the assessment, I assume she has notified the DWP that she is doing the work in which case the assessor will be aware of it, she will need to explain how she manages the two afternoons within the context of her current ESA award and the reasons she received it.

Gordon