UK Inquiry Tracker

The Access to Work scheme

Public Accounts Committee Open Inquiry

Opened: 12 Dec 2025 Parliament page

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) funds and administers the Access to Work scheme. Introduced in 1994, it is designed to help disabled people and those with health conditions. Support can take the form of an assessment exploring barriers to employment in a workplace and making recommendations to overcoming … Read more The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) funds and administers the Access to Work scheme. Introduced in 1994, it is designed to help disabled people and those with health conditions. Support can take the form of an assessment exploring barriers to employment in a workplace and making recommendations to overcoming them, and can fund practical support to supplement employers’ legally-mandated reasonable adjustments. Grants can also pay for specialist aids and equipment, costs of travel to work, and support workers. Government published proposals to reform Access to Work in March 2025. Demand for and spending on Access to Work has recently significantly increased. The number of people approved by DWP for support or a workplace assessment, or both, rose by 83% to 67,720 in 2023-24. Spending on the scheme increased over the same period by 72% from £149.9m to £257.8m in cash terms. This has resulted in significant backlogs in the scheme. Separately, in July 2025 the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) highlighted DWP’s seeming complacency in the face of a work coach shortage. In January of the same year, the PAC warned that disability benefits claimants were receiving an unacceptably poor level of service from DWP, with underpayment rates highest for those on these benefits. In 2026, the National Audit Office (NAO) publishes its report looking at challenges in the operation of Access to Work. Proceeding from the NAO’s findings, the PAC will take evidence from senior DWP officials on how the Department is addressing these challenges, with likely topics including what impact backlogs have had on claimants and employers. If you have evidence on these issues, please submit here by 23:59 on Thursday 26 February 2026 . Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. The Committee decides what information to publish and how. You can request anonymity or confidentiality when you send evidence, but it is for the Committee to say whether it will agree.It may treat submissions confidentially, even where you have not requested this. Please note that the Committee’s inquiry cannot assist with individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues. Show less

2 Recommendations

32 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Letter

1 Event

Activity timeline 3 events

12 Jun
2026

Report published

6th Report - The Access to Work scheme

20 Apr
2026

Correspondence

Letter from the Access to Work Collective to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee relating to the Access to Work scheme, 8 April 2026

12 Mar
2026

Oral evidence

Oral evidence session

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

12 Mar 2026

View on parliament.uk

Bill Thorpe · Department for Work and Pensions Helga Swidenbank · Department for Work and Pensions Neil Couling CB CBE · DWP Services and Fraud Sir Peter Schofield KCB · Department for Work and Pensions

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
6th Report - The Access to Work scheme	HC 92	12 Jun 2026	34	Pending

Recommendations & Conclusions

34 results

2 Conclusion

6th Report - The Access to Work sc…

The Department’s expectation that it will take at least 18 months to clear the applications...

The Department’s expectation that it will take at least 18 months to clear the applications backlog means hardship for individuals and businesses will continue for some time. The backlog of applications for Access to Work support has built up over … Read more

HM Treasury

The Access to Work scheme

Activity timeline 3 events

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

The Department’s expectation that it will take at least 18 months to clear the applications...

We are concerned about the large volume of written evidence we received that highlighted people’s...

The Department does not know how many cases its case managers can feasibly process in...

Deciding what workplace support the scheme should fund for each individual applicant is difficult and...

In some cases, taxpayers have been paying for workplace adjustments that employers should have been...

The Department has not done enough to generate evidence on the value for money of...

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...

Many of the people who provided written evidence described waiting periods of several months, and...

We asked the Department whether, to manage expectations, it would be possible at the outset...

The Department stressed that the crucial thing at the point people applied was for them...

Once an application for support has been approved, customers can submit claims for reimbursement of...

The number of applications waiting for the Department to make a decision almost trebled, from...

The processing delays and backlogs have had a negative impact on individuals and employers.21 The...

The Department told us that its plan was to arrest the growth in the applications...

We asked the Department when it expected to meet its target of processing applications in...

Following the evidence session, in May 2026, the Department announced a plan of action to...

Based on a work study it carried out in 2021, the Department expected its case...

The Department told us that, to improve productivity and the consistency of decision-making, it had...

The productivity of the Department’s case managers is hampered by the fact that the scheme...

We asked the Department when it would be sensible for us to assess the work...

The Department intends that the support provided by the Access to Work scheme is tailored...

In the written evidence we received, people described opaque and inconsistent decision-making, painting a picture...

The Department acknowledged that it had not immediately recognised that the nature of the scheme’s...

The Department acknowledged that it had prioritised throughput— processing cases quickly—at the expense of consistent...

We asked about the design of the scheme and why the Department had not defined...

The Department told us that the changing nature and complexity of its caseload had meant...

The Department intends that the scheme provides support for individual needs within the workplace over...

In 2025, the Department found, from a review of 200 cases, that some 40% of...

In its 2024 employer survey, the Department found that 80% of employers were taking action...

One of the Department’s principles for awarding Access to Work grants is that any approved...

We asked the Department about the value for money of Access to Work, including how...

The Department told us that it had looked at the impact of the scheme from...

We asked the Department about cost-benefit analysis of the Access to Work scheme relative to...

The Department told us that it was “quite unlikely” that the scheme paid for itself...

Correspondence 1 letter