Access to Work Programme: Visual Impairment
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to review the Access to Work scheme to ensure that blind and visually impaired people can access workplace adjustments and specialist support in a timely manner.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
Reforms are essential to ensure a better service for customers, to help disabled people start and stay in work, including blind and visually impaired people. We are reviewing all aspects of the Access to Work scheme, utilising the outcomes of the Green Paper consultation, the Collaboration Committees, and engagement with key internal and external stakeholders to inform its future direction.
We have committed to recruiting and training an additional 480 case staff to process the higher volume of applications, to join the 658 staff already working on Access to Work. Recruitment has already begun, and new case managers will receive extensive training to handle complex applications with confidence. This is to ensure disabled people, and people with health conditions, including those that are blind and visually impaired, can receive timely support to secure and remain in employment.
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