Access to Work was designed to be the thing that makes employment genuinely possible for disabled people, funding support workers, assistive equipment, and travel so that a person's disability doesn't become the reason they can't do the job they're brilliant at. But right now the scheme is in crisis, with decisions taking up to 37 weeks, while self-employed disabled people are actually being told to wait up to 19 months. The DWP is still dealing with claims from 2024!

The rejection rate for applications rose by more than 12 per cent in 2024-25, then by another 22 per cent between April and October 2025 alone, and in a survey by the Disability Poverty Campaign Group, disabled workers reported significant cuts to support hours, refusals to fund essential travel and personal care, and delayed payments that left them covering costs themselves or simply going without. For people with no employer to fall back on, no sick pay, and no buffer, these aren't administrative inconveniences, they are the difference between staying in work and being pushed out of it entirely.