Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with (a) neurological conditions and (b) multiple sclerosis are using the Access to Work scheme.

The Department does collect information on the primary medical condition of Access to Work recipients, however we do not hold information to the level required to identify people with neurological conditions. Therefore, we are not able to make an estimate of the number of people living with neurological conditions that are receiving support through the Access to Work scheme.

Information on the number of Access to Work recipients with multiple sclerosis is not readily available. Details of an individual’s specific disability/medical condition is stored as descriptive, free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and therefore falls outside of the costs limit.

Information on Access to Work volumes and expenditure by primary medical condition are published annually in the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK