Yesterday, in Parliament, Iain Duncan Smith, announced the trialling of personal budgets for Access to Work recipients.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith): We are trialling a new feature of the access to work scheme From today we shall be testing the use of personal budgets, which will allow disabled people who have received grants to decide exactly how and when the money can best be used to support their individual needs. That gives them more choice and more control over the support they receive to help them to start work, to stay in work, or even to start a business.
[Source: Hansard 1 Feb 2016 : Column 634]
This initiative was originally announced in the DWP press release New measures to support more disabled people into work - 12 March 2015.
Disability Rights UK has worked with other Disabled People’s Organisations - and disabled people more broadly - to campaign for changes to Access to Work. We are glad the government has listened on the vital issue of introducing personal budgets – so disabled people can decide how best to use the money. We hope this will move from piloting to being available for all Access to Work claimants as soon as possible.