Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will urgently establish an online support service for teachers to contact his Department about Access to Work changes.

We are taking steps to make the improvements the Access to Work Scheme requires to ensure that it can deliver a timely, efficient, and value for money service for all customers, including teachers. Reforms are essential to ensure a better service for customers, to help disabled people start and stay in work, to provide clarity in what support should be provided and to ensure we are providing value for money for the taxpayer.

We will continue to work with stakeholders as we begin the next phase of work. Through internal and external stakeholders, we want to connect the expertise of disabled individuals, and those with long-term health conditions, into the design and delivery of health and disability policy. We are keen to ensure Access to Work remains fair and sustainable; Access to Work is critical for the people it supports, so it is important we take the time to get reforms right so we can deliver real improvements.

To protect employment opportunities, case managers prioritise the small minority of AtW applications where the customer is due to start a job within four weeks. In 2025, we allocated c. 96% of applications starting work within 4 weeks in 28 days.