DWP work scheme ‘fiasco’ threatens Labour’s PIP reforms ...Middle East

The Government’s disability employment scheme has become a “fiasco” beset with payment delays, cuts to grants and year-long waits for support, The i Paper has been told.

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.

Grant money usually pays for practical support, such as specialist equipment or travel costs if public transport cannot be used, or it can help fund therapy to manage mental health issues.

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.

However, a record 62,000 people are currently waiting for their claims to be processed and the cost of the scheme has soared to £258m a year, according to the new figures obtained by The i Paper.

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.

One disabled broadcaster claimed they were forced to stop working after their support, worth over £50,000 a year, was stopped completely. They are now applying for universal credit instead.

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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.

Disability campaigners say major problems with Access to Work “pull apart the logic” of the Government’s welfare plans since it is forcing some people to quit their 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.

Both individuals and businesses can apply, with the maximum support grant capped at £69,000 per worker, per year.

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.

The backlog has grown significantly in the past four years, going from around 15,000 in 2021 to 55,000 by October last year. It now stands at 62,127, according to figures obtained through a FOI request.

Timms said the scheme’s growth was “unlikely to be sustainable” and was looking at “whether actually employers could do more” to contribute.

Jane Hylton-Phoenix, a self-employed study skills tutor from Uxbridge, was told in March that her Access to Work package would be cut.

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.

The amount of support has been cut from 22 to 16 hours a week, and their payments cut from £35 to £20 an hour.

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.

“I work with a lot of people who have dyslexia who also use Access to Work, and it’s clear there’s been massive changes to the support available.

“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

Decode, a programme run by arts charity Disability Arts Online and the Cathy Waller Company, said more than 100 people it works with have faced cuts to their support.

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.

Cathy Waller, co-founder of Decode, said: “It’s pretty horrific. It forces countless people to reduce their working hours or stop working altogether.

“The Government says they want to get disabled people into work. But the main Government programme that supports that aim is seeing drastic cuts.”

Alice Hastie, a disability consultant who works with both employers and employees, said her clients had found the DWP was tightening Access to Work grants.

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.

She claimed she had been passed information by a source at the DWP that showed a more formal tightening up of eligibility rules was planned for this year.

“It amounts to cuts,” said Hastie. “Cutting benefits to get people into work, then cutting Access to Work doesn’t seem rational.”

However, the Government said there were no immediate plans to change Access to Work, and it was still consulting on how to reform to the scheme.

Businesses are also speaking out on their problems with the scheme.

Yateley Industries – a social enterprise in Hampshire that employs 60 disabled people in packaging jobs – said its survival had been threatened when DWP payments stopped for around six months from October.

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.

Chief executive Sheldon McMullan said it appeared the DWP “don’t have the staff” to deal with the rise in claims. “It used to be a very stable, consistent scheme. But it has become very difficult and inconsistent.”

“If disabled who can work aren’t working, more people will be claiming benefits,” he added.

Growing waiting times

The average waiting times for Access to Work decisions have grown from 45 days to 85 days since last March. Some disabled people have been stuck in the backlog more than a year, according to Hastie.

“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.”

Scope said people they support have had to quit jobs while waiting on claims. Some have had their Access to Work packages cut, the charity added.

James Taylor, Scope’s executive director, said the Government must invest more in helping disabled people into work rather than “ripping financial support away.”

Mikey Erhardt of Disability Rights UK said the problems “pull apart the government’s logic for its benefit reforms”.

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.

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.”

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