Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of late payments through the Access to Work scheme on the ability of scheme users to book British Sign Language interpreters.

Access to Work customers have 9 months to submit their request for payment, once costs have been incurred. Access to Work aim for customers to be paid within 10 days of receipt of claims and all supporting evidence.

Following postal delays during July and August 2021, we are seeing payment clearance times return to normal. We are not aware of any systemic issues with users of the scheme being able to book Sign Language Interpreters.