Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2025 to Question 87803 on Access to Work Programme, whether his Department holds data on the (a) number and (b) proportion of Access to Work applications that have closed in each financial year from 2022-2023 to 2025-26 to date by (i) stage of the claim and (ii) reason for closure.

The Department for Work and Pensions does not close Access to Work applications. Instead, applications may be approved or not approved following assessment. The Department holds data on the number of applications that were not approved at the application outcome stage for each financial year as follows:

• 2022/23: 31,482 applications were not approved (30% of all decisions)
• 2023/24: 33,886 applications were not approved (24% of all decisions)
• 2024/25: 34,874 applications were not approved (27% of all decisions)
• 2025/26 (to October 2025): 27,297 applications were not approved (33% of all decisions)

This represents a total of 108,314 applications not approved between April 2022 and October 2025, accounting for 28% of all decisions made during that period.

Data on non-approvals is only recorded at the application outcome stage.

The reasons for non-approval include:

• No contact from the applicant
• Insufficient evidence provided
• Applicant not eligible
• Application not pursued