Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government’s response to recommendation 57 of the report of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Concluding Observations, what assessment the Government has made of the effect on the the Access to Work cap of (a) the development of an effective employment policy for persons with disabilities and (b) the duty set to ensure that adjustments and support necessary to access work are provided.

The evidence suggests that our employment policies and support are proving effective. The number of disabled people in work in the UK increased by almost 600,000 in 4 years to reach around 3.5 million in 2017.

Our response to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Concluding Observations lists many of the initiatives that comprise our strategy to enable one million more disabled people into work by 2027. Access to Work is part of this strategy and helps disabled people to be able to take up work or stay in work. This is why in 2015 we reformed the scheme to enable it to continue to help as many people as possible, and to provide incentives for customers and employers to make the best use of taxpayer funding. Access to Work goes well beyond recommendation 57c of the UNCRPD report on ensuring that reasonable adjustments are in place.

Access to Work provides help above reasonable adjustments. Access to Work awards can have a very significant value, up to the cap of £57,200 per person per year which came into full effect from April 2018.

DWP is continuing to monitor the Cap’s impact. Overall levels of approvals have remained stable over recent years and there is no evidence of divergence from this trend since the Cap was introduced in 2015. Although DWP has not formally assessed its impact on wider employment policy for persons with disabilities, the data available so far do not suggest that the Cap has adversely affected the development of effective employment policy, nor failed to satisfy the duty to ensure that adjustments and support necessary to access work are provided.

More recently, an update to the 2015 equality analysis for reforming the Access to Work scheme was published on 9 May 2018. This update provides a full analysis and may be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-access-to-work-an-update-to-the-may-2015-equality-analysis