Permitted work / art

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help me with this.

I'm on IB at the moment for long term chronic illness. Music is my hobby, I play piano and sing, and it helps to keep me sane. Lately my partner bought me some studio time as a present, so I could record some of my songs. I've also played them in public a couple of times recently, very short performances for which I was not paid. I have made *NO* money from this so far.

I seem to be getting a little bit of interest in what I'm doing and I wonder where I go from here in terms of my benefits. At the moment the amount of effort I've been putting in has been small and I consider music to be a hobby which I fit in around my illness, but what if it could be considered as work?

I don't know if anyone has any direct experience of this, but if you are an artist of any kind how does this work with your benefits? Do you have to sign off before you start selling any of your stuff? Is there a way you can try making money from it without losing out on your benefits altogether?

At what point should I tell the DWP about this, and what do I tell them?

If anyone could shed any light on this at all I'd be incredibly grateful because I find the whole thing very confusing!

CSx

Hi curlysue,

If you are performing for free then this doesn't sound like it is either paid work or voluntary work which you would need to inform the DWP about.

If you did decide to perform for money or to offer recordings for sale then that would count as remunerative work. This could potentially be done under the permitted work rules. See our guide to permitted work in the members area for more on this.

Steve

curlysue wrote:

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help me with this.

I'm on IB at the moment for long term chronic illness. Music is my hobby, I play piano and sing, and it helps to keep me sane. Lately my partner bought me some studio time as a present, so I could record some of my songs. I've also played them in public a couple of times recently, very short performances for which I was not paid. I have made *NO* money from this so far.

I seem to be getting a little bit of interest in what I'm doing and I wonder where I go from here in terms of my benefits. At the moment the amount of effort I've been putting in has been small and I consider music to be a hobby which I fit in around my illness, but what if it could be considered as work?

I don't know if anyone has any direct experience of this, but if you are an artist of any kind how does this work with your benefits? Do you have to sign off before you start selling any of your stuff? Is there a way you can try making money from it without losing out on your benefits altogether?

At what point should I tell the DWP about this, and what do I tell them?

If anyone could shed any light on this at all I'd be incredibly grateful because I find the whole thing very confusing!

CSx

not getting paid money for doing your work ? did you get any free drinks or a meal when you played because its a fact the tax man would count that as payment in kind, I am not sure about the DWP. you need to see what a mod knows they the experts

the max allowed free for tax in the UK is 15p per day The CAB can give you the details they have loads of information on payment in kind.

Hi Steve, thanks a lot for that.

Hi Dave, I didn't receive payment of any kind (including drinks - I bought my own!), but thanks for the info anyway.

curlysue wrote:

Hi Dave, I didn't receive payment of any kind (including drinks - I bought my own!), but thanks for the info anyway.

you can see the story in well known news paper
"benefit cheat gets free orange juice"