{"id":486160,"date":"2025-10-09T17:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T17:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486160\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T17:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T17:07:09","slug":"access-to-work-dossier-of-evidence-shows-real-harm-and-job-losses-caused-by-dwp-cuts-and-failings-disability-news-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486160\/","title":{"rendered":"Access to Work dossier of evidence shows \u2018real harm\u2019 and job losses caused by DWP cuts and failings \u2013 Disability News Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Access to Work scheme is failing Deaf and disabled people, and its \u201cdecline\u201d in the last two years has caused them \u201creal harm\u201d, with some support packages cut by 80 per cent, according to a detailed dossier of evidence prepared by a user-led organisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 33-page report was put together by London-based Action on Disability (AoD)<\/a>, which said its evidence shows \u201csystemic administrative failure, lack of transparency, and potential breaches of equality and human rights obligations\u201d by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).<\/p>\n

The evidence has been sent to the National Audit Office (NAO) as part of its ongoing investigation<\/a> into how DWP is addressing \u201cchallenges\u201d in the operation of the Access to Work (AtW) scheme.<\/p>\n

NAO launched its investigation earlier this year following concerns that increased demand for AtW support, and other factors, had \u201cadversely affected DWP\u2019s administration of the scheme\u201d, with \u201cgrowing backlogs of people waiting for their applications to be processed or their claims to be paid\u201d.<\/p>\n

Much of the AoD report is based on its experience assisting disabled people with their AtW applications, renewals and appeals, in which their awards were \u201creduced, delayed, or rendered unusable due to unimplementable conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Between January 2023 and July 2025, it says, average support hours per week for more than 35 work placements it monitored have fallen from 22.5 to just four, while the average waiting time for an AtW case manager to be allocated has risen from eight weeks to 30, the job retention rate has halved from 88 per cent to 43 per cent, and the progression to paid work for those on supported internships has fallen from 72 per cent to 28 per cent.<\/p>\n

Employers working with AoD say the deterioration of the scheme since 2023 has led to \u201cjob losses, reduced hours, and withdrawal from inclusion programmes that were previously successful\u201d, with a significant decline in confidence in AtW among employers.<\/p>\n

The dossier was shared with Disability News Service (DNS) this week, just days after DNS reported<\/a> how disability minister Sir Stephen Timms admitted signing off on a directive that led to widespread cuts to disabled people\u2019s AtW support packages.<\/p>\n

Sir Stephen admitted to DNS last week that he had signed off on an order for AtW staff to apply guidance more \u201cscrupulously\u201d, after civil servants submitted a \u201cproposal\u201d to him to approve.<\/p>\n

Among its concerns, the AoD report says changes to the way the scheme operates have made it harder for disabled people to contact their AtW case manager, while leading to inconsistency around quotations, inconsistent decision-making, and delayed or unclear pathways for appeals.<\/p>\n

The effect of the changes has been to exclude disabled people from employment, destabilise supported internships, and undermine employers\u2019 commitment to inclusion.<\/p>\n

This has left AtW no longer operating \u201cas a transparent, accountable, or lawfully administered scheme\u201d, says the report.<\/p>\n

The impact of changes over the last two years has been \u201ca significant reduction in awards, increased administrative delays, and a breakdown of communication between AtW and service users, reversing years of progress in inclusive employment\u201d.<\/p>\n

And it says its evidence suggests that DWP has refused to publish internal policy instructions; denied claimants procedural fairness; obstructed transparency; and failed to ensure economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in public spending.<\/p>\n

The report particularly highlights what AoD calls a \u201csystemic policy shift\u201d, with many applications that would previously have been awarded 100 per cent of a disabled person\u2019s support needs in the workplace now being awarded about 20 per cent of their assessed needs.<\/p>\n

This occurs when AtW categorises the assistance requested as a \u201cjob aide\u201d, meaning the support worker is viewed as performing part of the job on the claimant\u2019s behalf, rather than helping the disabled employee to overcome barriers related to the work.<\/p>\n

AoD says AtW\u2019s \u201crigid\u201d approach fails to recognise the \u201clegitimate\u201d support that many disabled people need to complete their work independently, such as prompting and structured guidance.<\/p>\n

It says AtW\u2019s lack of recognition of such an approach to support has led to significant funding reductions of up to 80 per cent, disproportionately affecting people with learning difficulties, autistic people, those with acquired brain injury, or people with sensory processing impairments.<\/p>\n

The report says the 20 per cent award policy \u201cis like handing someone a plank that only stretches a fifth of the way across a river and then blaming them when they fall in\u201d.<\/p>\n

The NAO said its report was likely to be published early next year, and its team was still \u201cgathering evidence through different methods\u201d.<\/p>\n

A government consultation on the future of Access to Work closed on 30 June, and DWP says it is now reviewing those responses and the scheme and working with disabled people and others on its proposals.<\/p>\n

A \u201ccollaboration committee\u201d on Access to Work \u2013 whose members have remained anonymous<\/a> \u2013 concluded its work this month, and DWP says its views and concerns will now help shape the department\u2019s policymaking.<\/p>\n

DWP continues to insist that no changes have been made to AtW policy.<\/p>\n

David Buxton, chief executive of AoD, said: \u201cAccess to Work should be a bridge into employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, thousands are being left stranded mid-way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scheme\u2019s decline is costing jobs, damaging wellbeing, and wasting public money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the NAO\u2019s inquiry restores transparency, fairness, and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

A DWP spokesperson said: \u201cWe inherited an Access to Work scheme that is failing both employees and employers, which is why \u2013 as part of our welfare reform \u2013 we consulted on how it could be improved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reviewing all aspects of the scheme and will develop future policy with disabled people and the organisations that represent them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, disability consultant\u00a0Alice Hastie<\/a>, who specialises in providing AtW advice, warned this week<\/a> that DWP had now shut down the AtW complaints email address, which she said \u201cseems like a bizarre (and barely legal!) way of reducing the number of complaints they have to deal with\u201d.<\/p>\n

DWP said last night (Wednesday) that its policy is that email is not a valid contact method for complaints unless this has been agreed as a reasonable adjustment.<\/p>\n

It is believed that the complaints email may have been shut down because it was for internal use only and its existence was not supposed to have been leaked to claimants.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A note from the editor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Access to Work scheme is failing Deaf and disabled people, and its \u201cdecline\u201d in the last two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[51,897,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-486160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115345309339137740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}