Disabled people using the Access to Work scheme – aimed at helping those with physical and mental health conditions to stay in employment – said they were “infuriated” their grant money had been reduced in recent months.
Labour is looking to overhaul Access to Work and has vowed to tackle a backlog of cases. The Government says it will invest £1bn in employment programmes to ease the pain of its £4.8bn cuts to health-related benefits.
Disability experts said cuts to support packages began early last year under the Conservative Government – but have picked up since Labour won power last summer.
square POLITICS Big Read‘You need to do better’ No 10 told as mutinous Labour MPs threaten PIP rebellion
Read More
It comes as Labour is pushing ahead with cuts to personal independent payments (PIP) and universal credit in a bid to get more disabled and long-term sick Britons into jobs.
The scheme was launched under the Tories back in 1994, but its low take-up meant it was known as the Department for Work and Pensions’s (DWP) “best kept secret”. However, Labour’s disability minister Stephen Timms recently told MPs the department had struggled with “an enormous surge” in applications in recent years.
The number of people using the work scheme has gone from 36,000 in 2019-20 to 68,000 last year. Annual costs have risen from £142m to £258m in the same period.
Timms said the scheme’s growth was “unlikely to be sustainable” and was looking at “whether actually employers could do more” to contribute.
The 43-year-old, who struggles with dyslexia, ADHD and arthritis, relies on a support worker and book-keeper to help her carry out tasks.
She is still trying to assess how much work she will be able to do with less help. “It’s horrific and panic-inducing to think how I will manage.
“It’s a fiasco,” added Hylton-Phoenix. “People are also waiting longer than ever [to get support] – it can be six months to a year to hear back on an application, which is laughable.”
‘Cruel’ to cut PIP and Access to Work
Since the start of 2024, almost 90 per cent of those renewing their Access to Work grant have seen money cut, or have been awarded less than requested. The average cut to grant money is 53 per cent.
“The Government says they want to get disabled people into work. But the main Government programme that supports that aim is seeing drastic cuts.”
Keir Starmer and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall want to cut benefits to get more people into work (Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA)Some had seen funding for support workers cut, she said. And grants for headsets, reading and writing software, specialist chairs and keyboards had also been cut by some DWP case managers.
“It amounts to cuts,” said Hastie. “Cutting benefits to get people into work, then cutting Access to Work doesn’t seem rational.”
Sheldon McMullan is chief executive at Yateley Industries, which faced a shortfall of £186,000 in expected grant money (Photo: Supplied)
Businesses are also speaking out on their problems with the scheme.
By March the shortfall in missed payments – partly subsidising the wages of support workers assisting disabled staff – added up to £186,000. After resubmitting claims, the money finally began to come through last month.
“If disabled who can work aren’t working, more people will be claiming benefits,” he added.
Growing waiting times
“Some people struggle on in new jobs while waiting on a claim, working longer hours and exhausting themselves, doing things that aren’t sustainable,” she said. “So some have to leave work.”
James Taylor, Scope’s executive director, said the Government must invest more in helping disabled people into work rather than “ripping financial support away.”
A DWP spokesperson said it was consulting on Access to Work reforms to find “the right balance between helping people access employment and helping them stay in work while also supporting employers to provide reasonable adjustments as part of their legal duties”.
Scheme is ‘complete shambles’
Catherine Eadie, a 54-year-old from Edinburgh who runs a social enterprise delivering mental health training, has seen her Access to Work support cut.
She has an auto-immune disease, fibromyalgia and chronic pain. And she is struggling with memory loss and other cognitive issues.
Catherine Eadie fibromyalgia and chronic pain, and relies on Access to Work (Photo: Supplied)Eadie has a grant which pays for a support worker who helps her with administrative tasks. But in December she was told by the DWP that it would be reduced from around £22,100 to £9,100 a year.
“I was told some of the things I needed help with were ‘standard business tasks’, and that I could use memory aids or other tools. But that completely ignores the reality of being disabled and running a small organisation.”
“It’s a complete shambles,” Eadie added. “It’s a scheme that they want to encourage, but they also seem to want it to be a secret.”
One disabled writer, broadcaster and artist, who did not wish to be named, had their Access to Work grant cut completely in August.
The grant, worth over £50,000 a year, had paid for travel costs and a support worker to help them carry out tasks for 30 hours a week.
“It’s infuriating,” they said. “I was working consistently when I had Access to Work support. But now I’m struggling to work at all. I have had to make a universal credit claim.”
They added: “The Government says they want more disabled people in work. But the cutbacks and problems [with Access to Work] are having the exact opposite effect.”
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( DWP work scheme ‘fiasco’ threatens Labour’s PIP reforms )
Also on site :