Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to remove barriers to disabled people returning to work after the covid-19 outbreak.

Recognising the challenges Covid-19 may present, DWP has introduced a number of measures to support disabled people whether they are working from home, or returning to work at their workplaces.

The Access to Work offers disabled people practical in-work support above the level of statutory reasonable adjustments, including a discretionary grant of up to £60,700 per year. The scheme’s new Blended Offer complements support provided by employers and contains a flexible mix of support, including support to work from more than one location, a package of home working support which can be blended with workplace support, mental health support for people returning to work after a period of furlough or shielding, travel-to-work support where the individual’s disability means social distancing on public transport is too risky and the prioritisation of applications from disabled people in the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable Group.

During the pandemic Access to Work introduced a number of measures to enable disabled people to move into or retain employment, the measures included:

• Transporting assistive technology from the workplace to the home environment to support home working and, where this is not possible, AtW will work with the disabled person and their employer to consider new adjustments to support adaptations to standard equipment.
• Extending timeframes for receiving claims for payments
• Accepting email claim forms and employer/support signatures via email so customers can shield.
• Delivering assessments through virtual means to further protect customers.
• Accepting email claim forms from customers who request this as a reasonable adjustment;
• Extending Support Worker awards that are coming to an end by 6 months;
• Prioritising new applications from key workers and those with jobs starting within the next 4 weeks.

Disabled people who have lost their job and require more intensive employment support still have access to both the Work and Health Programme and Intensive Personalised Employment Support. Providers are making use of digital channels to provide one to one support, including regular health and wellbeing conversations with our most vulnerable claimants.

In addition, Disability Confident provides employers with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace