Part time work while getting benefit.

Im not 100% sure of the exact details but I thought I would post the query in any event.

A neighbour (and good friend) is in receipt of some form of illness benefit (either long term disability or invalidity). His medical conditions can vary from day to day and he does engage in some clerical work on his good days. The strange thing is that he declares this in yearly tax returns although he never has to pay tax because of the small amount of income involved. He tells me that based on a full year there would be a total of about 3 to 4 months in which he is capable of doing some work.

I dont know what way his situation is being handled by SW and revenue as he is getting full time benefit and is working a few days now and again. As I said the details are disclosed to the revenue commissioners but I doubt if the SW dept are aware of it or if they are they turning a blind eye to the situation. As far as I know he has never told the SW about his casual work,

What he would like to do is to continue on as things are but would prefer if all agencies would be officially aware of his situation and allow this to continue. Has anyone ever come across something like this before or is there any advice that can be offered.

Thanks in advance.

First of you need to clarify precisely what payment he is receiving. Secondly you should check the Welfare website which most likely explains what might happen if the person is working even part time.

Welfare would not be aware of his situation unless he told themn...the onus is always on the claimant to inform them of any changes in circumstances. He would have to recieve permission from the department to take up any form of employment if he was on a disability type payment and this work should be of a rehabilitative nature. (I think a doctor's letter suffices to confirm this). The other thing is that this permission should be obtained BEFORE employment is taken up....

Sorry for the delay lads. Got talking a bit to him earlier this evening and its an invalidity pension he's been getting for about 14 or 15 years now. What he tells me is that he talked the matter over with his GP some time ago and he said it would be fine for him to do a bit of part time stuff when he was up to it but he didnt tell SW about it which I think maybe he should have done.

The tax thing apparently came around as a result of someone reporting him - thats what he thinks anyhow. He went to an accountant who submitted returns to the tax people showing that he was earning a couple of grand each year and obviously declared the benefit he was getting also. The amounts were low and he doesnt pay tax.

But back to his main problem. He doesnt really want to be in his present situation. The only options that I see that are open to him are either give up the benefit he gets and try working full time (which is not really on because of his disability) or stop the bit of work hes at and exist only on his SW payment which he says he couldnt exist on. I dont know what he he gets weekly or monthly but Im sure its not an awful lot.

I told him I would run this past a few people here on AAM to see if anyone else ever came across this situation before or could provide other options or advice.

Well he needs to regularise the situation with regard to Welfare sooner rather than later. Otherwise he could be defrauding them and ripping us all off.

ClubMan said:

Well he needs to regularise the situation with regard to Welfare sooner rather than later. Otherwise he could be defrauding them and ripping us all off.

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I can see your point alright. Funnily enough I would feel that I was being ripped off also if I was reading or seeing this somewhere else but as he's a good friend and his family are great neighbours it doesnt really bother me.

Oh - that's OK then. The acceptable face of welfare fraud I suppose...

ClubMan said:

Oh - that's OK then. The acceptable face of welfare fraud I suppose...

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I think you need to read my post again. I never said it was acceptable, I simply said that I personally wasnt bothered with my friend's activities so I dont see the point in distorting what I posted.

nutty nut said:

I think you need to read my post again. I never said it was acceptable, I simply said that I personally wasnt bothered with my friend's activities

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You mean it could be unacceptable to you but still not bother you?

In case you hadnt noticed the thread is not about me or my opinions. You can go argue the point on some other moral mountain but I have better things to be doing