Access to Work Programme
(asked on 16th June 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to correspondence (reference MC2026/38057), if he will define the term 'appropriate transition' of the Access to Work scheme.
Answered by
Stephen Timms
Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
By “appropriate transition” we mean that once the design of these improvements has been finalised, after incorporating feedback from stakeholders, they will be announced before they are implemented, helping to ensure customers are aware of any changes that may affect them.
The Department is making improvements to the Access to Work scheme to improve the help it gives disabled people to start and stay in work. To manage these improvements, we have engaged in extensive discussion with stakeholders to make sure the needs of customers are met.
We have already begun taking steps to improve the scheme, committing to recruiting and training nearly 500 additional staff to work on Access to Work. Recruitment has already begun, and new case managers will receive extensive training to handle complex applications with confidence. We also introduced a temporary dedicated Triage Team to look at cases prior to them being allocated to a Case Manager as well as a dedicated Change of Circumstances Team which has resulted in faster case resolution, reduced handling times and more consistent decision-making.
Work has commenced to align the communication processes so that Complaints and Reconsideration requests are aligned to wider DWP services, and we have strengthened the conversation between employer and employee around reasonable adjustments and removed routine email communication to ensure cases are dealt with efficiently and securely, so that contact is made within a set timeframe and decision outcomes are communicated timely.
The announcement delivered on 19 May set out our commitment to deliver an Access to Work that is efficient, is not prone to delay 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.