Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Access to Work applications were rejected in each of the last five years.

The information requested about the number of Access to Work applications that have been rejected is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

However, the Access to Work statistics includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2021/22. Please see Table 3 of the Access to Work statistics.

The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here:

Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

If the request is amended to how many applications were not approved for the last 3 years, Access to Work can provide the data. The number of applications will include applications not approved for the following reasons:

• No contact;
• No evidence;
• Not eligible;
• Not pursued; and
• Other.