Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to ensure that disabled people have received support to work from home through (a) Access to Work and (b) other measures since 23 March 2020.

DWP remains committed to ensuring disabled people continue to receive support they need to move into and maintain employment while working from home through Access to Work. Access to Work is working with employers to ensure assistive technology can be transported from the workplace to support home working. And where support cannot be removed from the workplace, Access to Work will work with the disabled person to consider new adjustments or support adaptations to standard equipment.

During COVID-19 Access to Work has introduced various measures to further support disabled people. These include:

• Accepting email claim forms from customers who request this as a reasonable adjustment
• Accepting employer and support worker signatures via email;
• Extending Support Worker awards that are coming to an end by 6 months;
• Extending the timeframe customers have to submit payment claim forms to 9 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;
• Flexing support and supporting the moving of special aids and equipment from the workplace to home, and providing new equipment for employees working from home where necessary;
• Prioritising new applications from key workers and those with jobs starting within the next 4 weeks.