In a GOV.UK announcement, the Department for Work and Pensions said it will expand staffing for Access to Work, the scheme that helps disabled people and people with health conditions meet the extra costs of employment. The department said the measure is intended to shorten waits for decisions and make it easier for claimants to start work or remain in post. Access to Work can cover specialist equipment, support workers such as British Sign Language interpreters, and travel to work where disability or ill health creates extra cost. That means the speed of decision-making is not simply an administrative question; it affects whether workplace adjustments are in place when employment begins or needs to be sustained.
DWP said demand for the scheme has more than doubled since 2018/19. Ministers said that, by the end of June 2024, 48,270 applications were sitting in the formal backlog and that around 60,000 people were waiting for a decision overall. For applicants, those delays can have direct effects. A postponed award can disrupt a start date, delay communication support or workplace adjustments, and in some cases push costs on to the claimant, employer or support provider while a decision is still pending.
The department said it will recruit 480 additional case managers and caseworkers by September 2027. On the figures published by DWP, that would amount to a 72 per cent increase on the 658 staff already working on the scheme. Ministers also said staffing on Access to Work has already risen by around 30 per cent since March 2024, that payment delays have been removed, and that 96 per cent of urgent cases where someone is due to start work within four weeks are now decided within 28 days. New staff are expected to receive training for more complex applications, while urgent start-date cases remain prioritised.
The recruitment drive sits within a broader DWP employment support package. The department said it plans to invest £3.5 billion in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions by the end of the decade, alongside Connect to Work, which ministers said is intended to help 300,000 people into employment by the end of this Parliament. DWP also pointed to the national expansion of WorkWell, backed by £259 million and intended to support up to 250,000 people to stay in or return to work. Other measures referenced in the announcement include the proposed Right to Try, designed to let people test work without immediate reassessment pressure, and the redeployment of 1,000 Pathways to Work advisers.
In ministerial terms, the staffing increase forms part of a wider push to raise employment participation and tie welfare administration more closely to job retention and job entry. The more useful policy test, however, is operational: whether a larger processing workforce can reduce the main queue, not only protect urgent cases. That distinction matters because Access to Work is often used at the point where a person has already secured a role or is trying to keep one. If decisions are slow, the scheme stops functioning as an employment support mechanism and starts acting as a barrier within recruitment and retention.
The external responses published with the announcement point to that pressure across the system. Mencap said delayed payments and slow decisions have placed strain on disabled workers and on organisations that employ or support them, particularly where job coaching or tailored workplace help depends on a timely award. BASE made a similar point from the provider side, warning that backlogs affect confidence to maintain or expand support. RNID said delays have been especially difficult for deaf people, including British Sign Language users who rely on interpretation, and noted evidence that some people have altered how they work, reduced hours or met costs themselves while waiting.
The government said it is also using its Keep Britain Working workstream to develop better practice with employers and representative bodies, while wider changes to keep Access to Work fair and financially sustainable remain under consideration. Those reforms are still at an evidence-gathering stage, with disabled people, employers and sector organisations being asked to inform future decisions. For now, the immediate question is straightforward. If the extra 480 staff bring down waiting volumes and keep payment performance stable, Access to Work will be better placed to do what the scheme is designed to do: remove practical barriers to employment for disabled people and people with health conditions.