Disability support cuts threaten small businesses reliant on Access to Work

An 80% reduction in one-on-one support under the government's Access to Work scheme is threatening the future of a small business that supplies travel products for wheelchair users and has left other employers scrambling to cover costs or losing staff.

Josh Wintersgill, who has run his company for six years, said the grant that paid for a support worker five days a week was cut to one day on reassessment. He has appealed the decision and, despite no change in his personal circumstances, has not received any support since the start of July. Wintersgill said the worker helped with travel, overnight stays and packing and shipping customer orders and that without the funding he would struggle to keep the business afloat.

Access to Work is designed to help disabled people and employers meet additional costs associated with work, including travel, specialist equipment, assistive technology and British Sign Language interpreters. It can pay both employers and employees for support that goes beyond what is legally required under workplace disability protections. The Department for Work and Pensions said it is reviewing all aspects of the scheme after inheriting what it described as a failing programme.

Social enterprises and large employers say the delays and reduced awards are already affecting recruitment, retention and day-to-day operations. Sea Change in Sunderland, a social enterprise cafe that employs about 25 neurodiverse adults, said several staff have had their support hours slashed on reapplication. Lexie O'Connor, a long-term employee who trains others at the cafe, said her reapplication took 10 months and the hours for her one-to-one support worker were greatly reduced, leaving the business to make up the shortfall. Sea Change said it had to let two members of staff go because support was cut.

Employers with substantial resources have also reported problems. Diana Salmon, head of occupational health and safety at Allianz UK, said long waits for awards and funding meant some recruits could not be properly supported and left shortly after starting. In one example cited by Salmon, specialist equipment took nearly a year to arrive, undermining the new employee’s ability to do the job and prompting them to leave.

Campaigners said the strain on businesses and disabled workers has intensified since July, when a group formed in response to reapplication problems, Access to Work Collective, amassed almost 4,000 members and sent an open letter to the prime minister urging urgent action. The Business Disability Forum warned employers and disabled employees were being "set up to fail," arguing that an unreliable scheme undermines government ambitions to increase disabled workforce participation.

Spending on Access to Work rose by 41% in 2023-24 to £257.8 million, reflecting growing use of the programme. But the DWP has disclosed large backlogs: in February 2025 about 62,000 applications were waiting to be processed, with 33,000 people awaiting payment. A government consultation on the future of Access to Work closed at the end of June and ministers said they are reviewing what a new scheme could look like.

The DWP said it had "inherited an Access to Work scheme that is failing both employees and employers," and that it had consulted on changes as part of welfare reform. The department added it would develop future policy with disabled people and representative organisations and said there had been "no change in Access to Work policy." Ministers have acknowledged demand has outstripped processing capacity; Sir Stephen Timms, minister for social security and disability, told the BBC the department had been struggling "to keep up with the demand."

Some affected business owners said they are temporarily covering costs themselves but warned that personal funds will not be sustainable. Wintersgill said he was managing by using his own money but expected that to last only a few months. "There's so much to do that it's just so hard to stay on top of it," he said.

Campaigners and employer groups are calling for the government to resource the programme more effectively and speed up decision-making to prevent further job losses and business closures. The DWP said reviews and future policy development will involve disabled people and the organisations that represent them, but provided no timetable for resolving the current backlogs and reductions in awards.

The uncertainty has broader implications for efforts to increase employment among disabled people, stakeholders said, noting that unreliable support can deter both candidates and employers and reverse progress on inclusive hiring. The DWP review is likely to be closely watched by businesses, advocacy groups and disabled workers seeking clarity on the future of a programme they say has helped many into work but is currently unable to meet demand.