Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications made to the Access to Work Scheme are outstanding as of 12 December 2022; and what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of outstanding applications.

We can confirm that as of 12 December 2022, 25,103 applications made to Access to Work are currently outstanding.

Access to Work has received a significant increase in applications over the last year and have recruited new staff to meet the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions. Customers making new applications, where they are starting work within the next 4 weeks or have a grant coming to an end that requires renewal, are prioritised to ensure customers are able to enter and remain in the labour market. We are also transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation, which will make the service more efficient, the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.