Disabled people across the UK say they’re missing out on support needed to do their jobs as the government-funded Access to Work (ATW) scheme continues to battle with delays and tightening of eligibility.
ATW provides personalised support to those with disabilities and health issues, including access to support workers, specialist equipment and contributions towards transport costs associated with work.
However, research by the Disability Poverty Campaign Group revealed those who have access to the support are reporting long delays and difficulties accessing essential equipment.
The National Audit Office found demand for the scheme had risen “significantly” in recent years with the number of applications rising from 76,100 in 2018-19 to 157,000 in 2024-45.
And because of the greater demand, the scheme’s users say they are facing problems getting support, with some having their funding cut at short notice.
Becca Jiggens, from Plymouth, is one such case. She runs the Work Inclusion Project, which provides in-work support to disabled academics, professionals and entrepreneurs.
Becca has macular disease, which means her eyesight is deteriorating, as well as ADHD and autism and got her first support award in 2020.
Her award used to be £68,000 a year, which she used to cover the cost of using an agency who provided her with the bookkeeping and legal support, as her eyesight means she finds it hard to read documents.
The funding has now been reduced by £50,000 to £18,000, and she was given just 17 days’ notice of this.
She has a legal background, specialising in disability employment law, and she says she needs someone with some legal knowledge to summarise documents for her, but as part of the cuts, she has been told the scheme does not believe she needs to hire someone with specialised knowledge.
She said: “Access to Work have said I don’t need somebody who is legally qualified to summarise documents and help with the legal side because AI can do it for me, but AI in the legal sector is simply not good.”
She has also been told she should pay for someone to do the financial side of things out of her own pocket, rather than via the scheme’s money.
“The financial system isn’t wildly visually accessible and so having somebody who can look over it and make sure I’m not making any wild mistakes and help me navigate the process is something that I need,” she says.
She says the extra cost of this alone will come to around £6,000 a year.
She says the lack of notice of her changes to support have made it difficult to come up with solutions.
“Even if they could have given me two months’ notice to say my award was coming down, I would have had two months with my full support to make a new plan,” she said.
Becca felt the scheme had changed significantly since summer 2024 and was getting worse.
She said: “I can’t see any purpose in terms of getting more disabled people into work.”
She is not alone in her experience and has witnessed many of her clients see the “devastating impact” of their awards being cut.
She says the new awards mean they’re often left with a budget that requires them to hire highly experienced people on minimum wage salaries.
And she also says there is a lack of consistency in the awarding of money from the scheme.
“We can have two professors from the same university with the same disability on the same salary and one case manager will give them the full professional hourly rate so that they can get their support in place and the other one will get barely minimum wage and there is no reason we can see as to why,” Becca said.
The scheme is also currently tackling backlogs and delays in processing and paying out awards with the National Audit Office finding the average time taken to process applications rising from 28 days in 2020-21 to 109 in November 2025.
Becca said: “We probably spend about £120,000 a year on pro bono, unfunded work to support people when access to work is being slow or their award has been changed.”
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A spokesperson for the DWP said: “Access to Work supports thousands of sick or disabled people to start or stay in work, and support provided by the scheme has nearly doubled in five years.
“But we understand that problems in the scheme we inherited are failing employees and employers.
“That’s why we’re working with disabled people and their organisations to improve it – ensuring people have the support, skills, and opportunities to move into good, secure jobs as part of our Plan for Change.”
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