Access To Work - Making Work Impossible

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For months now, we’ve been hearing about the new welfare reform and how those most affected by it are disabled people, especially with the proposed cuts to disability benefits. However in recent weeks I’ve become aware that cutting disability the UK government

are not happy stopping there. They are now on a mission to cut support provided by the DWP Access to Work Support, the very support that enables disabled people to work and put them on an equal footing with there non-disabled peers

I thought nothing of it when I submitted my Access to Work renewal in April nor when the Case Worker phoned me to discuss it. It has always been such a stress-free process. So much so that. I initially felt a sense of relief when I saw the email from my caseworker in my inbox saying that my renewal had been approved. My initial relief soon turned to confusion quickly followed by anger when I read the email and realised thar my access to work support had been cut by 19 hours a week with no warning. I filled in my renewal form in the same way I do every time its due so who are they to decide that I can only now have support for part-time how when actually I hold down two jobs?

This is not just impacting on me but also other disabled people across the UK. Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard stories of disabled people being forced to leave their jobs and close down their businesses because of this. I don’t want Y.O.U or I to be part of those statistics that with inevitably be published around this probably in the not too distant future if things keep going the way they are. Ironically the very government who are instructing the DWP to make these cuts are also the very government who have published a Green Paper called ‘Get Britain Working’. Really??? There is a consultation around it allowing organisations to respond but for mean many others, it feels very much like decision have already been made.

Contrary to what is happening on the ground, I heard it being said that there have been no cuts to the Access to Work scheme and that, they are just responding to the significant increase to the applications being made to Access to Work and their has been a change in need in terms of what people need from Access to Work. I’ve also heard the statement that the support that access to work provide is about ‘need not wants’.

So just to clarify my work support needs haven’t changed. Infact they have increased which Access to Work have supported until now. I CAN work, I WANT to work but to do that I NEED support. Sometimes needs and wants are the same thing. This Welfare reform has got disabled people over a barrel. For those that rely on benefits these are going to be cut and for those of us that are able to work, the support that allows us to do that is to be cut. So, in

short we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

That’s only the first tier of the issue. There is also the issue Access to Work capping the hourly rate that they will provide for support workers to £20 per hour. I’m not sure about other areas of the UK but in Scotland the currently hourly rate is £23.08. I had the promise from Access to Work in 2024 this this would be backdated when it increased to £22 per hours. Now I’m being told that this might not be the case. Therefore, if this is not resolved Access to Work are leaving Y.O.U and I with a financial debt through no faut of my own of over £11,000. Not only that but the reality is, with my Access to Work support there’s a very real risk of loosing my support team and of this impacting on other elements of my

support.

This would be a hard enough pill to swallow if my work support needs had changed but at least I would understand that as there would be a legitimate reason for the change. My case is now sitting with the reconsideration team but with no indicated timeframe or any indication of what the outcome will be. At present it could take anything up to 40 weeks and if the decision is upheld. I’ve been advised there is no appeal process. So, as I write this I’m sat here not knowing what will happen, if I will have a job or business in 3 months’ time. All I do know is if I don’t, I will have lost my sanity, and my purpose and disabled people will have lost the support that Y.O.U provides. Watching daytime tv all day everyday is not a thrilling prospect for me.

Access to Work cuts or changes are part of a wider reform. That being the case the name needs to change because right now Access to Work are only causing barriers to work