How do?
Thank you Mary for your very understanding comments on one of my earlier posts.
In the past I have wanted to try the 'Permitted Work' scheme, this is the replacement of the therapeutic work scheme where you could try and go to see how you got on in the workplace and you could earn about £80 or something like that. When I was doing that it was fine and I actually built myself up quite well and the MD of the firm wanted me to work part-time which I did for 18 months until the office manager put paid to that by taking my jobs away.
Permitted work came along and was restricted to 16 hours a week but then you could only do it for a year. How are you supposed to gauge whether you can work in only a year or in 16 hours a week?. In the life of a head injured person a year goes quickly as in my case.
Also why 16 hours that's about 3 hours a day and a bit more in a working week. That's about enough time to get there do a few bits and go home again. If you came in at 9.00am you had to go at 12.00 and it did not give you the chance to test yourself and try and break into the afternoon.
Does it mean if you can do more than 16 hours you are magically fit for work, I don't think so. In the case of head injuries you have to build up resistance to fatigue and let my brain get used to being active. Why not 20 hours as that would be more sensible?.
After a year you do the permitted work the employer is supposed to take you on, but if it doesn't work out after a year, you can't do it again until a year later or as I was led to believe. What's the point of that?. Would it not be sensible if you could go somewhere else and try and do something different?
After something as traumatic as a head injury which can often take years to get to a reasonable stage of recovery how does the permitted work help me, well it doesn't. Due to this it lead down the road of voluntary work.
So here you go another jobcentre scheme that is supposed to help you get back to work but doesn't actually help because it is so restrictive. As I have said before with the jobcentre and there schemes it always seems to be all or nothing!.
see ya
Brainblogger
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1 comment:
What you need is the 104-week Linking Rule.
Basically: you work anything up to 16 hours a week (and it doesn't have to be 5 shifts of 3 hours, it could be 3 shifts of 5 hours) and that's Permitted Work. You continue to claim IB, and get to keep the first £80 of your weekly earnings on top of that. You can do this for a fixed period of six months, or for a year if 'supported' by an organisation.
(Permitted Work rules can apply indefinitely in very special circumstances, or if it's just a couple of hours of work each week with no probability of increase, but the rules on that are hazy and perpetually changing.)
Generally, after the period expires, you are expected to (a) go back to being on IB and not working, or (b) coming off IB, bumping your hours to more than 16, and claiming Tax Credits if your earnings don't represent a living wage.
Now... say you got a job and it was 20 hours a week (either straight away, or following a PW period). You would come off IB and go on to living on your earnings (plus Tax Credits if applicable).
BUT, for 104 weeks, that's two years, after your IB claim ended, the Linking Rule would apply... so if your health deteriorated and you got signed off again, you would go straight back onto the level of IB that you were on previously, no muss, no fuss.
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