Access to Work Programme
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people used Access to Work support in 2024; for what reasons; and what the cost to the public purse was of this.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
The most recent complete financial year of data available in the published Access to Work official statistics is 2023/24: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK.
In 2023/24, around 61,630 people received a payment for any Access to Work provision and total expenditure across all provision was £257.8 million.
We have interpreted reasons for using Access to Work as being the primary medical condition reported by the individual. In 2023/24, the largest Access to Work customer group in terms of number of payments, by primary medical condition was those with a ‘Mental health condition’, who account for 27% (16,560) of the total number of customers. Those with the primary medical condition ‘Learning disability’ are the second most common group and make up 11% of customers (6,720 people). Those who are ‘Deaf or hard of hearing’ are in receipt of the highest proportion (30%) of total Access to Work expenditure.
The Department intends to publish data for the financial year 2024/25 in the next official statistics publication which has a provisional publication date of September or October 2025.
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →