Disabled people warn of brutal 'secret' cuts to DWP Access to Work support: 'It's been horrific'

Disabled people say they’re seeing their Access to Work (AtW) support quietly slashed – despite no formal change in government guidance.

AtW is meant to level the playing field: it helps companies to cover costs beyond reasonable workplace adjustments and pays for equipment, support workers, interpreters and travel so disabled people can stay in work. 

But since early 2024, disabled people, advocates and support providers have reported severe reductions to awards – often at renewal stage – with no warning or explanation.

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“What we’re seeing, especially at renewal stage, awards are being slashed by 60% to 70%,” said accessibility consultant and broadcaster Dr Shani Dhanda. “We didn’t know it was a trend at first, then we kept hearing it and we realised – this is a trend, this is a pattern.”

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) told Big Issue the scheme was under review and the number of AtW applications continued grow despite “deploying additional staff and streamlining our procedures”.

Earlier this year, Big Issue reported on the story of Jess Thom, a disabled comedian and advocate who was forced to quit her job after her AtW support was slashed by more than 60%. Sadly, her story is far from unique.

Sassy Wyatt, a blind travel journalist and accessibility consultant, had used AtW to fund essential visual support for three years. Her renewal was approved – then abruptly cancelled by a new caseworker.

 “It’s been absolutely horrific,” she told Big Issue. “I’ve been close to breaking point.”

“Access to Work has taken my career to the next level… and me essentially employing people means I’m giving money back to the economy – not just from my work, but the work I’m doing by employing others.”

 The sudden support withdrawal means she can “no longer afford” support workers.

“I’ve had to turn down work because I haven’t had the support. I feel like a second-class citizen – like, how dare I, as a disabled person, ask for accommodations to help me do my job?”

Entrepreneur Rachel Parker, founder of the award-winning Frangipane Bakery, also lost everything when her AtW renewal failed. Parker is autistic and has various sensory and communication challenges. 

AtW played a crucial role by funding a 1:1 support worker who helped her navigate administrative tasks and cope with running a business. 

“It’s not that I can’t do it,” Parker said. “It’s that I need that support there to facilitate me to do it.”

But when her support came up for renewal, she was blocked. She requested 40 hours of support to meet growing business needs – but AtW refused to communicate via her established reasonable adjustment of email. Without accommodations in place, Parker was deemed “non-compliant”.

“I couldn’t do a call with them, and they refused to allow my support worker or my advocate to speak to them on my behalf, and they then deemed me as being non compliant, and closed down my renewal, leaving me without support or any hope of getting support,” she recalls.

“That’s when I had the least hope.”

The result was devastating: she was forced to shut down the bakery, give up her premises, and experienced a severe mental health crisis – including a period when she went missing.

With the support of her MP and advocate, Parker has since had her application reopened, and received a workplace assessment – but she does not yet know what is going to happen. Parker has now had no AtW support for six months.

“The assessor [at the new workplace assessment] said that they were recommending that my support hours were all reinstated,” she said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean the DWP is going to honour it.”

What is happening behind the scenes at the DWP?

Disabled workers are being told they no longer qualify for support they’ve had for years, Dhanda claims, while case managers are overturning existing awards.

“Renewals are being treated like new applications, and they’re saying it’s to ensure that people are getting everything that they need,” Dhanda said. “But it’s not that – they’re gaslighting you to say this is a way for us to reduce your eligibility but not say that. That’s what makes it even more disgusting.”

In February, minister Stephen Timms hinted publicly that big changes were coming to AtW.
“What we will need to do… is make some fairly significant reforms to Access to Work,” he said. “The current style… is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.”

The DWP has not formally acknowledged any cuts. But whistleblower testimony suggests a different story.

According to the Access to Work Collective – a grassroots group founded by Dhanda and Universal Inclusion CEO Jacqueline Winstanley – internal restructuring of the scheme is already underway.

Phase one, already in effect, includes: a 20% cap on enabling support, cuts to assistive tech and equipment, new restrictions on how support is delivered and support worker wage allocations that fall below minimum wage.

Phase two, due in September 2025, could remove entire categories of support – including job aide roles, assistive tech and specialist equipment. Only limited coaching and British Sign Language interpretation would remain.

“If enacted, this would effectively strip Access to Work of its ability to meet the needs of the vast majority of disabled workers,” the collective warns.

While the DWP declined to comment on the specifics of changes, a spokesperson said that pressures on the system are increasing. 

“Despite deploying additional staff and streamlining our procedures, the number of Access to Work applications waiting to be processed is continuing to grow,” they said.

“That’s why, as set out in the Pathways to Work green paper, we are consulting on the future of Access to Work and how to improve the programme to help more disabled people into work and support employers.

“We will be reviewing all aspects of the scheme now that the consultation has closed and will be developing future policy in collaboration with disabled people.”

AtW was a lifeline for Dhanda. 

“When I was 16, I started applying for jobs… I had one sentence on my covering letter, I said I’ve got a health condition, but it doesn’t affect my ability to do this job,” she recalls. “And it got to the point where I’d applied for over 100 jobs, and I didn’t hear anything back.

“I removed that line from my covering letter and got an interview straight away… It was really deflating. I just thought– how the hell am I going to live? In a world that won’t hire me?”

Disabled people are twice as likely to be unemployed, and have to apply for 60% more jobs before they are hired.

When Dhanda finally got a job, she was “terrified” to ask her line manager for the support she needed in case they let her go. Access to Work – which paid for a bespoke office chair, a footstool, and a smaller keyboard – “changed [her] life”.

 “It was a game–changer.”

According to Access to Work Collective polling, seven in 10 disabled people said they probably would not have or absolutely couldn’t have got into work, attended interviews, or stayed employed without Access to Work.

A total of 74% of disabled people said Access to Work helped them stay in a job, while 87% said it had a major impact on their ability to stay in work or run a business. Nearly eight in 10 (78%) of employers said it enabled them to hire disabled people by covering workplace adjustment costs.

But the system is currently overwhelmed. At the start of 2024, 62,000 applications were waiting to be processed, with 33,000 people awaiting payment.

Some wait six months or more just for a decision. Others see their support withdrawn mid-contract, throwing jobs and income into chaos. All this, despite no official change in eligibility guidance.

AtW was designed to protect disabled workers from exactly this kind of exclusion. But as the safety net unravels, many are left with impossible choices.

Wyatt cannot pay her support workers, who are many thousands of pounds out of pocket.

“Every time I get text messages from my support workers, I feel broken,” she told Big Issue, “Because I have nothing to share with them except more and more and more bad news.”

The Access to Work Collective is calling on the government to halt all current and planned cuts to AtW, and to rebuild AtW from the ground up.

“While AtW has always been difficult to get and keep, cost-cutting measures since 2024 have worsened this dramatically,” the collective urged.

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