when does a hobby become work?

My son receives IS + SDA for mental health problems and is PCA exempt. He and a friend wrote and illustrated a short story for family and friends at Christmas as a hobby. His GP has encouraged him to do things like this. One of these friends has asked to buy some copies. If he accepts payment does it then count as work? What if they only charge for the materials they use? Does he have to inform the DWP? Will this have any affect on the transfer to ESA.

Thanks for any help. I guess occassionally making crafts and selling them is a grey area.

groundhogday wrote:

My son receives IS + SDA for mental health problems and is PCA exempt. He and a friend wrote and illustrated a short story for family and friends at Christmas as a hobby. His GP has encouraged him to do things like this. One of these friends has asked to buy some copies. If he accepts payment does it then count as work? What if they only charge for the materials they use? Does he have to inform the DWP? Will this have any affect on the transfer to ESA.

Thanks for any help. I guess occassionally making crafts and selling them is a grey area.

Hi GHD,

This is a hard one to call with regards to whether it would be classed as income, so unfortunately, I'm afraid that I can not give you a definitive answer.

You may wish to seek face to face advice on this, see :

Where to get advice?

With respect to your son being PCA Exempt, as you may be aware, no one will be exempt from the ESA Transfer process, which is taking place from now until Spring 2014, except claimants who reach State Pension Age before 06/04/14 see :
Who will be transferred?

If you have a look at all the relevant sections in our FAQ's, from here : FAQ’s

You will see that there is an awful lot of useful information that may be of help.

Information on this FAQ page may be of interest : Permitted Work

You can access all our ESA Claims Guides, from here :

ESA Guides

I hope all the above is of some help to you.

bro58

It is very much a grey area. It appears very much a hobby activity that led to a very limited and unexpected sale and it might be hard fvor the DWP to call this work if the amounts involved are in order of expenses in doing it. What might be more relevant is whether the work involved contradicts the existing profile of his impairments as understood by the DWP, then you could be into a reassessment situation.

However, it is one for independent advice but at the end of the day the decision still has to me made, declare or not declare, the advisor will probably not, ina grey area like this, be able to make that sort of choice for you.
One of the dilemmas for many claimants is that engaging in these acytivities is good for their confidence and morale, but often hazerdous to their benefit status, it is one of the diffficult areas for claimants.
However, pop along to your local advice centre/cab and chat with them and get their advice.

My opinion is that a hobby becomes work when one receives payment either monetary
or in kind, after deducting reasonable expenses to enable them to have that hobby.

See Do you have a business or hobby ?

Cannot find a DWP reference, so this may not be the same criteria.

I suggest your son consults the office that pays his IS or SDA and ask for an official explanation.

A few years ago I was "shopped" anonymously via the Benefit Hotline for working whilst claiming IB/SDA.

I rang them to find out if I needed a solicitor for the interview and ended up talking over the issue down the phone (NOT something I would now recommend!)

The man I spoke to accepted my explanation of what was going on (helping someone out for a short period and for no money).

He asked me if I considered doing therapeutic work. If a doctor or some such were to say that this would be good for me, then I could do up to 16 hours a week without disqualifying me for benefits. He said nothing about how much money could be involved.

In the case of GHD's son the GP has "encouraged" the work concerned, so that would surely come under the heading of "therapeutic" work.

It sounds as though investigating the current status of therapeutic work and contacting the GP to make sure s/he is prepared to put that recommendation in writing would be the next step.