Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Access to Work scheme is available to all disabled workers who need reasonable adjustments to be able to work during the covid-19 outbreak.

During Covid-19, Access to Work has continued to provide funding for people with a disability or health condition whether they have been working in the workplace or working from home. The changing working environment has meant some disabled people have adapted their support, for example switching from face-to-face British Sign Language Interpreting to Video Remote Interpreting services or making greater use of assistive technology and software. Access to Work has actively worked with employers during the pandemic. For example, Access to Work worked with employers to transport assistive technology from the workplace to the home to enable home working. And where the support cannot be removed from the workplace, Access to Work has put in place alternative adjustments or supported adaptations to standard equipment.

Covid-19 has impacted the way we work and where we work. Recognising the additional challenges the Covid-19 lockdown has produced for disabled people, Access to Work has put in place a series of measures to ensure disabled people were not adversely affected and were able to continue to receive support. The measures included:

• Accepting email claim forms from customers who request this as a reasonable adjustment;
• Accepting employer and support worker signatures via email;
• Extending Support Worker awards that are coming to an end by 6 months;
• Extending the timeframe customers have to submit payment claim forms to 9 months;
• Adapting the way assessments are undertaken to support customers who don’t know what support they need; and
• Prioritising new applications from key workers and those with jobs starting within the next 4 weeks.

As Covid-19 has continued to change working environments, employers have asked employees to work flexibly and work from home where possible. To enable disabled people to have the flexibility to adapt to new working arrangements Access to Work has introduced a new flexible offer to address concerns raised by Stakeholders. The new offer complements support provided by employers and contains a flexible mix of support that can be adapted to meet the needs of new Covid-19 working arrangements. The offer includes:

• support to work from more than one location;
• a package of home working support which can be blended with workplace support;
• mental health wellbeing support for people returning to work after a period of furlough or shielding;
• travel-to-work support for those who may no longer be able to safely travel by public transport due to the nature of their disability; and
• prioritising Access to Work applications from disabled people in the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable Group.

Background

Access to Work (ATW) is a demand-led, discretionary grant to de-risk the recruitment and retention of disabled people for employers. The grant contributes to the disability related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition that are beyond reasonable adjustment, but it does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments. The grant provides personalised support and can provide workplace assessments, travel to/in work, support workers, specialist aids and equipment for individuals to enable disabled people and those with a health condition to move into or retain employment. And can fund up to £60,700 worth of flexible, personalised support per person per year.

Access to Work provides assurance for disabled people that they can access the support they need to overcome their barriers to employment. Knowing that support is available empowers disabled people, it provides confidence for both the disabled person and potential employers and works to remove any disadvantage in the labour market.