The Employment and Support Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

A claimant who works to be treated as not entitled to an employment and support allowance

40.—(1) Subject to the following paragraphs, a claimant is to be treated as not entitled to an employment and support allowance in any week in which that claimant does work.

(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to—

(a) work as a councillor;

(b) duties undertaken on either one full day or 2 half-days a week as—

(i) a member of the Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board, or

(ii) a panel member with a disability qualification, as defined in regulation 1(2) of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations, acting as a member of an appeal tribunal constituted under Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the 1998 Order;

(c) domestic tasks carried out in the claimant’s own home or the care of a relative;

(d) duties undertaken in caring for another person who is accommodated with the claimant by virtue of arrangements made under any of the provisions referred to in paragraph 27 or 28 of Schedule 8 (sums to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings) where the claimant is in receipt of any payment specified in those paragraphs;

(e) any activity the claimant undertakes during an emergency to protect another person or to prevent serious damage to property or livestock; or

(f) any of the categories of work set out in regulation 45 (exempt work).

(3) This regulation is subject to regulation 46 (effect of work on entitlement to contributory allowance where claimant is receiving certain regular treatment).

(4) A claimant who does work to which this regulation applies in a week which is—

(a) the week in which the claimant first becomes entitled to a benefit, allowance or advantage on account of the claimant’s limited capability for work in any period; or

(b) the last week in any period in which the claimant has limited capability for work or is treated as having limited capability for work,

is to be treated as not entitled to an employment and support allowance by virtue of paragraph (1) only on the actual day or days in that week on which the claimant does that work.

(5) Regulation 145 (linking rules) does not apply for the purposes of calculating the beginning or end of any period of limited capability for work under paragraph (4).

(6) The day or days in a week on which a night worker works, for the purposes of paragraph (4), are to be calculated by reference to regulation 28 (night workers).

(7) In this regulation—

“week” means a week in respect of which a claimant is entitled to an employment and support allowance;

“work” means any work which a claimant does, whether or not that claimant undertakes it in expectation of payment;

“work as a councillor” is to be taken to include any work which a claimant undertakes as a member of a district council or any body of which the claimant is a member by reason of being a councillor.