Permitted work

Permitted work is the exception to the general rule that you cannot work while claiming ESA. It lets you do some paid work, build skills and confidence, and test what you can manage, while keeping your full ESA payment and your National Insurance credits. The rules are narrow, and the penalty for breaking them is severe: work outside the permitted work limits can end your ESA entirely. So the order of operations matters: agree the work first, then start it.

The headline limits, 2026/27

Supported permitted work is work supervised by a professional support worker, someone who works for a public or voluntary organisation whose job is to arrange work for disabled people. It includes work in the community, in a sheltered workshop, under medical supervision, or as part of a hospital treatment programme. The supervision is the point: because the work is supported, the hours limit does not apply, but the £203.50 earnings limit still does, and you must still be paid at least the National Minimum Wage for the work you do.

Before you start: the PW1 form

If you are already claiming ESA and want to start work, fill in the permitted work form, known as PW1, and send it to Jobcentre Plus. Tell Jobcentre Plus about your work, including any volunteering, when you make a claim, and again before you start any new work. Your work coach must agree that the work is permitted work. Do not rely on a verbal assurance alone: keep a copy of the completed form and a note of who agreed it and when. If your hours vary from week to week, the DWP looks for a pattern and may average your hours, normally over 5 weeks if no pattern emerges, so keep a simple weekly record of hours and pay from the start.

Voluntary work, and work that is not permitted work

You can do as many hours of voluntary work as you like, and voluntary work does not count against the permitted work limits, provided it is genuinely unpaid and not for a relative in a way that the rules treat as work. Unpaid work experience approved by the DWP, work as a councillor, and caring for a relative or another person living with you are also treated separately under the rules. Everything else paid is judged against the permitted work limits. If you go over either limit in a week, you risk losing ESA for that week or, if the work is not permitted work at all, losing the award. That is why the PW1 step comes first: it turns a guess about whether work is allowed into an agreement.

Worked examples

Example 1. A claimant in the support group takes a supported placement in a community workshop, 20 hours a week, earning £150 a week after tax and National Insurance. The hours exceed 16, but because the work is supported permitted work, the hours limit does not apply, and £150 is within the £203.50 cap. The work is permitted, and ESA continues in full. Example 2. A claimant in the work-related activity group takes a shop job at 12 hours a week earning £210 a week after tax and National Insurance. The hours are within the limit, but the earnings exceed £203.50, so the work is not permitted work as arranged, and ESA is at risk. Reducing the hours slightly would not fix it, because the problem is the pay, not the hours: the earnings must come down to £203.50 or below. Example 3. A claimant does 6 hours a week of unpaid volunteering at a charity shop. Voluntary work has no hours limit, so this does not affect ESA, but it must still be reported to Jobcentre Plus.

Stale figures warning: older leaflets and parliamentary papers show permitted work caps of £101 or £167 a week and a 52-week limit. Those figures are superseded. The current DWP permitted work factsheet, dated April 2026, gives £203.50 with no week limit, and that is the figure used throughout this site.