Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what the average length of time taken to process claims under the Access to Work Scheme was from 1 January to 31 December 2022.

The average length of time taken to process claims under the Access to Work Scheme for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 was 52.1 days

The time taken to process different application types can vary, some can be cleared very quickly, and decisions made in a day, whereas others, if complex, may take longer and require a Workplace Assessment to recommend a tailored package of support for individual customers.

Access to Work has received a significant increase in applications over the last year. In response, we have recruited new staff to meet the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions, and we are continuing with this over the year. We are also transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation, that will make the service more efficient, make the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.