ESA permitted work

Hi

My partner is in the support group for ESA. She has Paranoid Schizophrenia and as part of her treatment her consultant has always encouraged her to engage with art as a means of therapy. Recently she has had some interest from companies in purchasing some of her artwork. This has come about through word of mouth and hasn't involved any promotion or advertisement on her part (she has never viewed it as a business) As a result she has been considering applying to be allowed to do Permitted Work. Obviously she's a bit apprehensive about how this may be viewed by the DWP and is concerened that it may generate a new Work Capability Assesment.

We're just trying to establish how this might develop with regards to the DWP so that she can decide whether it would be worth the hassle and anxiety that might follow.

She was assessed for and migrated to PIPS last year (higher care component and lower mobility, phone interview only), as part of the application her Consultant provided a letter outlining her condition and as part of that talked of her engagement with art for therapeutic reasons and how much this benefited her so the DWP are definitely aware of this.

From memory her last Work Capability Assesment was in 2016 where she was maintained in the Support Group. She wasn't required to attend a face to face interview, paper assessment only.

Does anyone have any advice and/or experiences of applying to do permitted work and what she might expect given the circumstances outlined?

many thanks

Thanks for that Gordon

However I'm not sure about how I establish if she qualified through the Substantial Risk rules, I assume not but how would I go about establishing this?

As for the Work Related Activities do you mean things such as:Learning how to do tasks; Awareness of hazards and danger; Starting and finishing tasks etc.? (sorry if I'm being a bit dense here!) If so I don't think that how she produces her artwork would overlap with any of these.

In essence she sits in the house and draws patterns, my brother who works in the games industry has seen some of these and has said that the company that he works for may be interested in purchasing some of this work. It would be on a purely ad hoc basis in that they would purchase her work if they liked it so there would be no onus on her to work to deadlines or interact with anyone at the company or for that matter my brother. As said the DWP have always been aware that she undertakes art for therapeutic reasons and have never challenged this aspect of her situation in the past. She would just be continuing this but with the possibility of having some of it purchased.

Gordon
So I've managed to track down an old ESA85A from when my partner first migrated from IB in 2012 and she was awarded ESA at that time through the Substantial Risk rules. I'll be requesting a ESA85A relating to the last decision in 2016 tomorrow but I assume it will have been awarded for the same reasons.

You say that this would be of particular concern with regards to applying for Permitted Work, would you be able to expand on this a bit? Just trying to get an idea of why DWP might object so that she can make a decision about whether to pursue this or not.

many thanks

craig