As the government pushes to get more disabled claimants in to work, a report by the National Association of Welfare Rights Workers (NAWRA) demonstrates how Access to Work (AtW) is failing disabled claimants through a combination of delays, unnecessary bureaucracy and the lack of any appeal process.

The AtW scheme is administered by the DWP.  It can provide money to pay for work-related help such as:

  • A support worker
  • Specialist equipment
  • Assistive software
  • Travel to work costs

For many disabled people, AtW can make the difference between being able to get, or keep, a job or being unable to work.

Yet the waiting time for getting or renewing an award has grown to such an extent that people’s livelihoods are put under threat and their health suffers.

NAWRA have produced a collection of case studies for the Work and Pensions committee inquiry into Employment Support for Disabled People, setting out how AtW is failing to offer adequate support.

N has Parkinson’s and applied for help from AtW in January 2025.  In July she rang AtW for an update, only to be told they were still working through last November’s applications.  N now faces losing her job as, without support, she can only work from home and her employer needs her in the workplace. 

M applied to AtW in June 2025 for help travelling from home to the railway station to get to work, after injuring her back. Her employer funded an Uber for a month but AtW have now told M she is likely to have to wait 30 weeks for a decision. M may have to take long-term sick leave as a result.

A is an artist with dyslexia, COPD and compression of the spine and needs help including with organizing, planning and reading.  When she went through the AtW renewal process there was a delay of 12 weeks after the end of her award, before a new award was made.  During this time A paid her support worker out of her own money, only to discover that her new award had been cut by 70%, including all the support worker’s wages.  There is no appeals process and A ended up in hospital due to the stress of the experience.

There are many more case studies in the NAWRA report and the organisation is recommending, amongst other things that the government:

  • Ensures that claims are dealt with up front so that neither employees nor employers are put at a financial disadvantage
  • Sets up a support service to assist applicants to manage the process
  • Sets up strict timescales within which applications are dealt
  • Properly invests in AtW which will result in more disabled people being in employment - the government’s clearly stated aim - and boosting the economy
  • Sets up an independent appeal process again with strict timescales so problems are resolved timeously

Unfortunately, it is far more likely that support from AtW will be made much less generous and employers will be expected to make up the shortfall, with predictable results for the employment rates of disabled people.

You can download the full NAWRA report here

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    · 12 days ago
    Although I’m one of the “lucky ones” (I have Access to Work funding and recently got my award renewed) my funding for my support worker has been reduced to below legal minimum wage for the number of hours I need her support and I can only have 9 sessions with my job coach in the year rather than bi-weekly support the assessor agreed I needed. 
    Whilst on the higher amount of support I still ended up with a month off work due to illness. I’m terrified that this severe reduction in support will end up with me unable to work. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 13 days ago
    I applied for AtW in September 2024 so have been waiting 13 months so far. I chased them up in June and was told that as I was elf employed that I was further down the list than employed people and would be waiting until 2026 for them to get to my case. The way it is going I will have to give up my self employment and claim benefits. They say they want disabled people to work but yet don't even help the ones who are.
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    · 13 days ago
    From my application to ATW, to the receipt of support,  it took nearly a year. That was a year filled with stress, anxiety and physical pain (employer arguing about the type of chair I could have....) ATW is supposed to be exactly that, and if the government want people to get back into work, then this service should be expedited and not leave those with additional needs struggling to the point of considering resignation.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 16 days ago
    Reading the NAWRA report really hit hard because it mirrors exactly what I went through. The failures they describe aren’t isolated.. they’re built into the system! Access to Work has become yet another example of how the DWP fails disabled people. It’s supposed to help us stay in work, but instead it causes stress, delays, and financial harm. The lack of communication, endless forms, and total absence of accountability are exhausting (and often humiliating!). Things have only got worse over the years, but this was already happening back in 2022.

    When I got a new job in 2023, I applied for a 2nd round of AtW support. It took 6 months to come through, and even then, the advisors had questioned whether I’d be granted it “again” because I’d received support the year before. By that point, my employer had already decided I was “too much of a hindrance,” despite me being completely upfront at interview and throughout RE: my conditions and needs. The same day my AtW support was finally approved was also the day I had been informed of my job loss, so I had to tell AtW I wouldn’t need it .. because I’d lost the job and no longer qualified for the support. I was left to my own devices from that moment onwards. It was troubling because the employer was a psychology based non-profit.. a place I thought I could trust to understand and support me. But I’ve realised over time that it’s actually very rare for any employer to have the capacity or willingness to truly support a disabled employee. There’s a huge gap between what’s promised and what actually happens.. and the DWP doesn’t have the budget or structure to bridge it, nor do a majority of employers. All whilst disabled workers have almost no protection or legal rights until 2 full years into employment.

    The DWP keeps talking about “helping disabled people into work,” yet their own systems do the exact opposite! It leaves people like me stuck, struggling, and punished for being different. Those delays and failures cost me my job, my health, and my financial stability. Over 2 years later, and I’m still dealing with the fallout, still trying to climb out of the debt created by the very system that was meant to help and still jumping through hoops; justifying my existence to the DWP. The NAWRA report just confirms what so many of us already know and have experienced : Access to Work is not fit for purpose, and the DWP’s lack of accountability is pushing disabled people further into crisis.

    Sending hope to those that need it, this at least made me feel a little less alone.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 20 days ago
    https://www.hsj.co.uk/mental-health/exclusive-streeting-orders-probe-of-mental-illness-overdiagnosis/7040101.article

    So Wes streeting taking inspiration from trump and rfkjr mission to find out why autism levels are increasing in America.

    Wonder what the answer will be if not paracetamol (much sarcasm intended) 
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    · 20 days ago
    Well I’ve come to expect that if DWP are involved and you are disabled or and have sensory difficulties or and health inequalities they really are not the best at dealing with individual’s lived experiences and inequalities. If Access to work renewal gets it wrong and it leads to worsening outcomes there’s no hope that the Timms review is going to make it much harder, more difficult to qualify for disability benefits. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 20 days ago
    Whilst my employer has been pretty fair in terms of obtaining additional equipment for me through ATW they have mentioned they are not happy at the proposed changes. Businesses are already deeply unhappy about extra national insurance contributions, the Employment Rights bill going through Parliament, and possibly additional taxes to be levied after the Budget in November. It's making businesses very reluctant to recruit for able-bodied people, let alone the disabled. Politicians of ALL parties have to realise that getting those with long-term medical conditions will involve considerable extra cost, whether they like it or not.
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