Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to extend the Access to Work programme so that disabled people have support plans in place before an employment offer.

The Department has published an Access to Work pre-employment eligibility letter for individuals, their employers or potential employers in order to provide an indication of the help that people may be able to receive from the Access to Work scheme. This letter has been updated to include reference to both mental health support and coverage of apprentices, and can be found here. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/access-to-work-eligibility-letter-for-employees-and-employers

We are also promoting Access to Work and producing case studies to illustrate how the scheme can support people in a range of settings and how it makes a positive difference to disabled people’s working lives.