Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Huge recruitment boost to tackle backlog in vital disability work scheme, published on 19 May 2026, what analysis he has undertaken of the causes of the increase in Access to Work claims since 2018-19.

The department has not undertaken analysis to identify the causes of the increase in Access to Work claims since 2018/19. We have committed to recruiting and training an additional 360 case managers, and 120 case workers to process the higher volume of applications, that is a 72.5% increase to the existing 658 staff already working on Access to Work. Recruitment has already begun, and new case managers will receive extensive training to handle complex applications with confidence.