Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to support disabled entrepreneurs.

The Government provides schemes such as the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) that offers business mentoring and financial support to people, including those with disabilities, aged 18 and over and on eligible benefits, who want to start a business. Latest statistics (to end April 2017) show that around 1 in 4 (44,080) people who have participated in the NEA have declared a disability, with 23,120 of these progressing to set up a business.

Access to Work can also help disabled entrepreneurs who are self-employed or running a small business, by providing a discretionary grant as a contribution towards extra disability related workplace costs, for example funding for support workers, travel costs, and aids and adaptations, subject to qualifying criteria being met.

The Office for Disability Issues is engaging with external experts to explore the potential for collaborative work on events and initiatives to support entrepreneurs that are disabled. The recently launched OpenLab community and website links together entrepreneurs with ideas around disability and technology with big businesses and others who may be able to support them in progressing their innovations.