Access to Work Scheme: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Huge recruitment boost to tackle backlog in vital disability work scheme, published on 19 May 2026, what estimate he has made of the number of employers affected by delays in Access to Work decisions.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
Access to Work applications are processed and recorded at the individual applicant level, as grants are awarded to individuals rather than employers.
The Department is unable to extract data on the number of employers that could be affected by delays. Finding this information would require a manual review of individual records, which would incur disproportionate cost.
The Department recognises that delays in Access to Work decisions can impact both employees and their employers.
As set out in the Department’s press release of 19 May 2026, we have committed to recruiting nearly 500 additional staff, who will receive extensive training to handle complex applications. These measures will improve processing times and support our plan to clear the backlog by September 2027.
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