Lorraine Beavers

The cost of additional staff recruited to process the backlog of Access to Work applications will be funded from within the Department’s existing budget allocation. It will not be funded from Access to Work allocated budgets.

As set out in the Written Statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 19 May (HCWS34), to increase the efficiency and reduce waiting times for the scheme we will recruit an additional 480 case staff to process the higher volume of applications. When recruitment is complete, we will have more than twice as many staff working on Access to Work as in March 2024. The recruitment process has already begun, and new case managers will receive extensive training to handle complex applications with confidence. This will ensure disabled people, and people with health conditions can receive timely support to secure and sustain employment.

We also welcome the National Audit Office’s report on AtW and are carefully considering its recommendations. In addition to this, we have consulted and collaborated widely with disabled people along with employers and representative bodies to gather evidence. These insights will help inform our work and shape any changes to Access to Work.

We will also draw on the outcomes of the Green Paper consultation and the Collaboration Committees to inform and help shape the future direction of Access to Work.

The announcement delivered on 19 May set out our commitment to deliver an AtW that is timely, efficient, and can meet new levels of demand. It will help to restore confidence in the capability of the Scheme to award the right support at the right time and sets a pathway towards further improvements.

The Equality Act 2010 places a general duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to allow disabled people, including people with assistance dogs, access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act. It has published guidance - ‘Assistance Dogs: a guide for businesses and service providers’ - to help businesses and service providers understand what they can do to meet their legal duties to assistance dog owners.

Duties and protections under the Equality Act are ultimately enforceable through the courts, and anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to seek to resolve the issue. The EHRC will support people who have experienced discrimination through that process.

This Government supports Guide Dogs UK’s ‘Open Doors’ campaign which aims to achieve the fullest possible access for owners of guide dogs and assistance dogs and has met Guide Dogs UK several times over the last 18 months. I have also met with other MPs and continued discussions with stakeholders on how to improve access to public spaces for disabled people with assistance dogs. This Government will continue to reinforce the message that assistance dogs should be allowed access to businesses and services, except in the most exceptional circumstances.

Although the Department collects information on the medical condition(s) of Access to Work customers, readily available primary medical condition categories do not allow for the disaggregation of people with multiple sclerosis or other progressive neurological conditions. Where this information is recorded it may be stored as descriptive free-text and extracting it would require manual review of individual records therefore incurring a disproportionate cost. Statistics on the number of people in receipt of payment for Access to Work by readily available primary medical condition categories are published annually in Table PAY03a-d of the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK.

We do not hold this information in a way that can be extracted. Identifying such cases would require a manual review of individual awards, which would incur disproportionate cost.

Please find the Official statistics on payments and approvals which are published annually and can be accessed here: Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK

In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we consulted on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the scheme so that it helps more disabled people in work. We are considering all aspects of the scheme as we develop plans for reform following the conclusion of the consultation. In addition, available administrative data and management information will be utilised in shaping any proposals.

We have recently concluded (November) the Access to Work Collaboration Committees, in which we engaged with a range of stakeholders, including DPO representatives and lived experience users, to provide discussion, experience, and challenge to the design of the future Access to Work Scheme.

Statistics on the number of people in receipt of payment for Access to Work support and average annual payments per person, by support worker type which includes a category for ‘BSL Interpreter’ are published in tables PAY02 and AVG02 of the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2025 - GOV.UK. Table 1 summarises these figures:

Table 1. Number of customers in receipt of payment and average annual payment received per customer for ‘BSL Interpreter between financial years 2020/21 and 2024/25

Notes

• Numbers of people have been rounded to nearest 10 and average annual payments to nearest £100.
• Real terms expenditure removes the effect of inflation to make year-on-year comparisons more informative, these figures are quoted in 2024/25 prices

DWP is committed to providing accessible digital services for all our customers in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Within this legislation DWP is working to ensure that services conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA. DWP is continuing to onboard some services to the Government Digital Services One Login programme. The accessibility statement for this service is available at: https://signin.account.gov.uk/accessibiliity-statement

For deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL), DWP has published a 5-year plan to improve BSL services. This includes reviewing digital channels and platforms to improve accessibility for BSL users. DWP is committed to providing suitable methods of communication for customers who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. The Video Relay Service allows DWP to communicate with customers via a BSL interpreter using a video connection. DWP also has a dedicated DWPSign channel containing many BSL videos on benefits and services. All published video and audio content has closed captions or a transcript.

Although the Department holds information on the specific types of support for which Access to Work payments are made, data which would allow payments for ‘hearing aids’ to be identified is not readily available. The data is recorded as descriptive free-text information and extracting it would require manual review of individual records, incurring disproportionate cost.

Statistics on the number of people receiving Access to Work payments by readily available element and support worker categories are published annually in Table PAY02 of the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2025 - GOV.UK.

Although the Department collects information on the medical condition(s) of Access to Work customers and the types of support they are awarded and claim payment for, we are unable to link awarded support elements to specific medical conditions without manually examining individual case notes. It would therefore incur a disproportionate cost to identify what support, if any, customers receiving a ‘BSL Interpreter’ have been awarded in relation to medical conditions other than ‘Difficulty in hearing’.

No one should be refused access to businesses, services or public spaces because they legitimately have an assistance dog.

Strong protection already exists in the Equality Act 2010, which places a duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve disabled people’s access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. This reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty, meaning that those who provide goods, facilities and services to members of the public are expected to anticipate the reasonable adjustments that disabled customers may require, including auxiliary aids.

This could include allowing the use of assistance dogs so that disabled customers have the same access to goods and services and are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a public body responsible for enforcing the Equality Act, has published guidance for all businesses, including service providers, on this subject. The guidance explains that assistance dogs should be treated as auxiliary aids and not as pets. The guidance makes clear that businesses and service providers should allow assistance dogs access to buildings where dogs would normally not be permitted whenever this is reasonable.

No one should be refused access to businesses, services or public spaces because they legitimately have an assistance dog.

Strong protection already exists in the Equality Act 2010, which places a duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve disabled people’s access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. This reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty, meaning that those who provide goods, facilities and services to members of the public are expected to anticipate the reasonable adjustments that disabled customers may require, including auxiliary aids.

This could include allowing the use of assistance dogs so that disabled customers have the same access to goods and services and are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a public body responsible for enforcing the Equality Act, has published guidance for all businesses, including service providers, on this subject. The guidance explains that assistance dogs should be treated as auxiliary aids and not as pets. The guidance makes clear that businesses and service providers should allow assistance dogs access to buildings where dogs would normally not be permitted whenever this is reasonable.

No one should be refused access to businesses, services or public spaces because they legitimately have an assistance dog.

Strong protection already exists in the Equality Act 2010, which places a duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve disabled people’s access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. This reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty, meaning that those who provide goods, facilities and services to members of the public are expected to anticipate the reasonable adjustments that disabled customers may require, including auxiliary aids.

This could include allowing the use of assistance dogs so that disabled customers have the same access to goods and services and are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a public body responsible for enforcing the Equality Act, has published guidance for all businesses, including service providers, on this subject. The guidance explains that assistance dogs should be treated as auxiliary aids and not as pets. The guidance makes clear that businesses and service providers should allow assistance dogs access to buildings where dogs would normally not be permitted whenever this is reasonable.

Access to Work (AtW) operates as a reimbursement grant, which means that the service or support must be provided before any payment can be made. Once AtW support has been approved, the customer can then submit their claim for payment. Customers have up to nine months to submit claims for their approved costs. As a result, on any individual day, there will always be claims awaiting review and payment. On average, we are currently processing and clearing claims within 13 days. We have plans in place to reduce this to 10 days.

As of the 1st of February 2026, there were 16,389 payment claims being processed.

As of the 1st of October 2025, there were 9,103 payment claims being processed.

As of the 1st of April 2025, there were 28,499 payment claims being processed.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.