Businesses employing disabled people are complaining they are owed hundreds of thousands of pounds by the government, and fear they may as a result have to let these staff go.
An investigation by the BBC has found that businesses using the Access to Work scheme are facing backlogs and huge payment delays.
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Under the Access to Work scheme, companies and employees can apply for grants to help support disabled people in the workplace.
One company told the BBC it was owed nearly £200,000 by the scheme and worried it may have to close. Another said it had already been forced to shut down in part because of problems with the programme.
The programme is supposed to pay individuals with disabilities and the businesses that employ them for the extra costs associated with being in work. It covers a broad range of support, from paying for taxis to powered wheelchairs.
However, the investigation highlighted how one charity, Yateley Industries in Hampshire, which employs almost 60 people, most of whom have disabilities, was owed £186,000 by the Access to Work scheme.
“It’s an existential threat to us,” chief executive, Sheldon McMullan told the BBC. “If we don’t get it, we could potentially close this magical place forever, and that would be a tragedy for the local community and for the government’s agenda more broadly.”
“The annoying thing is that it’s money that’s been granted to us,” he adds. “We have the paperwork saying this is what each person’s been awarded, but the claim system is not set up for us to draw down the money effectively,” he added.
Other businesses said that, as well as poor internal processes at the DWP, there had been a large increase in the bureaucracy associated with Access to Work in recent months, with many more forms having to be filled in and then posted – not uploaded or emailed – to the DWP.
“Until ministers realise that they’ve got this wrong, they’re in danger of pushing so many disabled people out of the workplace,” said Steven McGurk, president of the Community Union trade union.
“It’s very bureaucratic, very difficult to claim – it’s the biggest threat to disabled people’s employment,” he added.
The BBC investigation is not the only question-mark over Access to Work scheme. In March, the Times newspaper reported that more than 60,000 disabled people are facing waits of more than nine months to receive support from the scheme to enable them either to enter or remain in the workforce.
Disability minister Sir Stephen Timms also recently acknowledged that there is a severe backlog in the programme, telling MPs that it had seen a large increase in applications, which had resulted in the system slowing down.
The number of disabled people receiving support had more than doubled in the last seven years, he highlighted. In the past year alone, support had increased by more than 15,000 people – going from 34,800 claims to 49,920 in 2023-24, with many thousands of unresolved applications, leading to significant wait times.
In a statement, the DWP told the BBC: “Last month we introduced a new streamlined claims process to ensure outstanding payments are made swiftly to businesses.
“We also continue to work with employers to explore how the Access to Work Plus claims process could be made easier for their employees and so people with high in-work support needs can thrive in employment.”
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