'I cannot see a secure future if Access to Work continues to cap budgets. I could lose my job'

A deaf council worker fears that he will lose his job after his Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) support was cut.

Tomasz Borys works for his local council in London, helping vulnerable residents navigate services such as social care and doctor’s appointments. He covers the front desk and takes telephone calls – tasks that are impossible without an interpreter.

“BSL (British Sign Language) is my first language, which I use every day,” the 40-year-old told Big Issue. “Sometimes, when I’m reading English, I do struggle with some of the jargon.”

Borys started his career as a cleaner, then a support worker in a care home supporting deaf people, before landing his current role. But he can’t always afford an interpreter due to rising costs and a cap on his Access to Work grants. He’s been topping up the shortfall from his own pocket, enduring “considerable anxiety and stress”.

“Access to Work does not fully understand deaf people’s needs,” he told Big Issue.

Read more:

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• Disabled man may be forced to close his business after DWP slashed his Access to Work support
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What is the Access to Work cap?

Access to Work support is capped at around £69,000 a year. It sounds like a lot. But qualified BSL interpreters typically charge £30 to £70 per hour – and agencies usually bill by the half or full day, whether the interpreter is needed the whole time or not.

For a full-time worker needing support five days a week, the cap can be exhausted well before the year is out. And it’s effectively shrinking: interpreter fees rise with the cost of living, but the £69,000 ceiling doesn’t.

“I cannot see a secure future in my career if Access to Work continues to reduce or limit budgets,” Borys said. “There is a risk that I could lose my job and be unable to find another role that matches my skills.”

When it comes to Access to Work, the DWP is under serious financial pressure. Spending on the scheme nearly doubled from £163 million in 2018–19 to £321m last financial year as demand surged, and is forecast to reach £517m by 2029–30.

Since 2024, many disabled people have been reporting sudden and unexplained cuts to their grant at renewal stage, even if their circumstances didn’t change.

New research from Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) and DeafATW – based on a survey of 267 BSL users across the UK – found that over a third of those who renewed their grant had it reduced despite no change in their circumstances. Half of those people were given no written explanation for why.

More than two in five said they had missed training and development opportunities because they couldn’t access adequate support. More than a third said they attend fewer meetings or events as a result.

The Access to Work scheme is failing deaf BSL users, said Robert Geaney, head of policy and campaigns at RNID.

“If the scheme doesn’t provide enough funding for essential interpreter support, people whose first language is BSL cannot communicate with their colleagues or fully participate in the workplace, which can undermine people’s confidence and risks them feeling isolated, which is just not fair,” he said.

It’s not just deaf people being shut out. As Big Issue has previously reported, disabled people across the scheme are experiencing what campaigners have described as “stealth cuts”. In addition to reduced grants, rejections have risen sharply, from 24% of applications in 2023-24 to around a third between April and October last year.

There has been no official change to Access to Work guidance. But Emily Davison, a legally blind journalist whose support worker hours were cut by 80% earlier this year, told us: “They’re claiming that they haven’t changed the guidelines. But I don’t see how they can claim that … when my support has dropped so severely but my needs haven’t changed.”

Processing times have nearly quadrupled over four years, reaching 109 days in November 2025, according to the National Audit Office. Almost a third of RNID’s survey respondents who had received a decision waited four months or more.

The government’s Pathways to Work green paper, published last year, acknowledged the scheme cannot continue in its current form. Ministers are now considering changes, with campaigners pushing for reform rather than cuts.

A DWP spokesperson said Access to Work “supports thousands of sick or disabled people to start or stay in work, but demand for the scheme has grown significantly and the number of people supported has nearly doubled in five years”.

“We know from employee and employer feedback that we inherited issues in the scheme, which is why we’re working with disabled people and their organisations to improve it.”

If the system doesn’t improve soon, Borys says he will struggle.

“It is difficult to imagine the future under these circumstances.”

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