Access to Work Scheme Owes Businesses Thousands

Under the Access to Work scheme, companies and employees can apply for grants to help support Disabled people in the workplace. 

However, businesses have told the BBC that there are backlogs and huge payment delays, which has left them out of pocket. 

One company told the BBC it is owed nearly £200,000 by the Access to Work scheme and is worried it may have to close. 

Another said it had already been forced to shut down in part due to problems with the programme. 

Access to Work can pay individual Disabled people and the businesses that employ them for the extra costs associated with being in work. It covers a broad range of support, from paying for taxis to powered wheelchairs. 

Yateley Industries is a near 90-year-old charity in Hampshire that employs almost 60 staff, most of whom are Disabled people, in a range of packaging jobs. 

It says it is owed £186,000 by the Access to Work scheme.  

"It's an existential threat to us," says chief executive, Sheldon McMullan. "If we don't get it, we could potentially close this magical place forever, and that would be a tragedy for the local community and for the government's agenda more broadly." 

Yateley Industries is part of a nationwide forum of supported businesses - companies specialising in employing Disabled people. 

Businesses say that as well as poor internal processes at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), there has also been a large increase in the bureaucracy associated with Access to Work in recent months, with many more forms having to be filled in and then posted – not uploaded or emailed – to the DWP. 

"Until ministers realise that they've got this wrong, they're in danger of pushing so many Disabled people out of the workplace," says Steven McGurk, president of the trade union, Community Union.  

"It's very bureaucratic, very difficult to claim - it's the biggest threat to Disabled people's employment." 

In Newton Abbott in Devon, a cafe that employed people with learning disabilities shut last month. The founders say new restrictions and problems with Access to Work contributed to the closure. 

Sarah Thorp, who set up the No Limits cafe, said the scheme had in recent months started to refuse funding for people who wanted to get some work experience.  

The decision came despite the local Job Centre recommending the individuals to the cafe. The change left the business with a shortfall of £800 a week. 

"In the last 18 months, we've got 20 people into paid employment, all with disabilities," she says.  

"When the issues around work experience changed in the last few months, we had to turn people down because we could not fund the support. It just seems really counter-intuitive when all the rhetoric is around getting Disabled adults into work." 

As well as businesses being able to claim Access to Work, Disabled people themselves can apply for help under the scheme.  

They are also suffering delays and backlogs; in October, there were 55,000 outstanding applications, according to the DWP. 

Some claimants are waiting more than six months to be assessed, with people writing on social media that the delays have resulted in them losing job offers. 

Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms, said in February that Access to Work, established in 1994, "was not in a good shape at the moment."  

Spending on the programme increased by 41% in 2023/24 to £257.8m.  

"What we will need to do…is make some fairly significant reforms to Access to Work, look at whether employers can do more. There is quite a big issue here and the current style of Access to Work is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term," he said.  

"We have to come up with something better and more effective, given the current very high level of demand." 

Fazilet Hadi DR UK’s Head of Policy said: “Instead of celebrating the greater number of Disabled people using Access to Work, the Government is viewing an increase in applications to the Scheme as a problem. 

It is reducing packages of support, insisting on enforcing out-of- date and unfair eligibility rules, presiding over unacceptable delays and exhorting employers to do more. 

“The conclusion I draw from the Government’s contradictory messages is that it only wants some Disabled people to work, rather than all Disabled people. For those of us who need expensive access technology and or a support worker, job aid or BSL interpreter, Access to Work is our only option.  

“If we can’t rely on Access to Work, we will find ourselves excluded from the workforce, as our support needs go beyond the reasonable adjustments required by the Equality Act. Limiting or refusing us Access to Work, will exclude us from work and open us up to increasing levels of employer discrimination.” 

Source: Jobs fears as disability scheme owes businesses thousands available from bbc.co.uk. 

See also our related news story How does limiting the Access to Work Scheme get more Disabled people into work?.