Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Written Statement of 20 March 2018 on Access to Work, HCWS563, how many people will be affected by the increased funding cap.

As a result of extensive engagement between Ministers, officials and a broad range of customers and stakeholders, DWP raised the limit of the cap to twice average salaries (£57,200) from with effect from April 2018.

Based on recorded Access to Work spend in the 12 months prior to the drafting of the Equality Analysis, we estimate that approximately 120 transitionally protected customers would be likely to be affected by the cap had it remained at 1.5 times average salaries (£43,100) this year.

The increase in the cap to twice average salaries (£57,200) with effect from April 2018 raises it above the annual recorded spend of around 80 of those customers, leaving approximately 40 existing customers whose awards may be capped. These figures are estimates based on customers’ recorded spend patterns, which fluctuate depending on a range of factors.

It is important to note that the new cap figure amounts to almost 90% of affected customers’ average recorded spend over the previous 12 months.

These figures are outlined in ‘An update to the equality analysis for the 'Future of Access to Work May 2015'’, which was published on 9 May 2018 and may be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-access-to-work-an-update-to-the-may-2015-equality-analysis