Access to Work Programme: Coronavirus
(asked on 24th November 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people (a) applied to and (b) benefitted from the Access the Work scheme from March to October 2020.
The information requested past March is intended for future release in the 2020/21 Official Statistics publication.
The number of applications and beneficiaries for the period April 2019 to March 2020 is available in the latest Access to Work statistics publication but this is not broken down by month. Data on a monthly basis would not be exact as the number of people applying to and benefitting from certain Access to Work elements will not be captured within a month’s time frame. Hence, we generally choose to aggregate at a yearly level to avoid data inconsistencies.
The latest Access to Work official statistics can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/access-to-work-statistics
Background
Access to Work
Access to Work (ATW) is a demand-led, discretionary grant to de-risk the recruitment and retention of disabled people for employers. The grant contributes to the disability related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition that are beyond reasonable adjustment, but it does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments. The grant provides personalised support and can provide workplace assessments, travel to/in work, support workers, specialist aids and equipment for individuals to enable disabled people and those with a health condition to move into or retain employment. And can fund up to £60,700 worth of flexible, personalised support per person per year.
During the pandemic Access to Work has continued to provide support whether disabled people were working in the workplace or working from home. Acknowledging the challenges Coronavirus had for disabled people, Access to Work introduced a series of measures.
- Prioritising new applications from key workers and those with jobs starting within the next 4 weeks;
- Adapting existing awards to meet new working environments. Such as, switching from face to face British Sign Language Interpreting to Video Remote Interpreting services where possible as well as making greater use of assistive technology and software;
- Accepting e mail claim forms from customers who request this as a reasonable adjustment
- Extending the timeframe customers have to submit payment claim forms to 9 months;
- Accepting employer and support worker signatures via email;
- Extending Support Worker awards that are coming to an end by 6 months;
- Adapting the way our assessments are undertaken to support customers who don’t know what support they need and/or where coping strategies are required as part of the Mental Health Support Service;
- Supporting furloughed employees who need mental health support, by flexing access to the Mental Health Support Service;
- Providing support for deaf Access to Work customers to maintain work readiness whilst on furlough; and
- Funding Personal Protective Equipment for Access to Work customers who employ their own support workers.
Recognising the challenges Covid-19 has for employers and disabled people, Access to Work has introduced a new more flexible offer to support disabled people to move into and retain employment. The new offer complements support provided by employers and contains a flexible mix of support that can be adapted to meet the needs of new Covid-19 working arrangements. The offer includes:
- support to work from more than one location,
- a package of home working support which can be blended with workplace support,
- mental health wellbeing support for people returning to work after a period of furlough or shielding,
- travel-to-work support for those who may no longer be able to safely travel by public transport due to the nature of their disability, and
- prioritising Access to Work applications from disabled people in the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable Group.
The 2019/20 AtW statistics illustrate the increase in support provided by Access to Work, with over 43,000, the highest ever number of people with disabilities and health conditions receiving tailored and flexible support to do their job.
Access to Work has continued reaching out to underrepresented groups including those with Mental Health conditions, seeing the highest ever number of people approved for Access to Work, 8,710 people, almost double the number of people compared to the previous year.
AtW is helping more people:
– In 2019/20 the highest ever number of people received payments – 43,400 up 20% on 18/19.
– In 2019/20 over 37,000 people received an award for an Access to Work grant up 25% on 2018/19
Expenditure increased to £141.7 million, a new record amount, equating to an 8% increase in real terms expenditure on 18/19.
Further information can be found in the link below.
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