Access to Work, the best kept secret?

So, Let’s talk Access to Work and let’s look at what is currently good, bad, rumoured and fact. Are you ready? Because there is a lot to take in.

ATW is a government scheme that provides personalised support to Disabled people who have found a job or are already in work. The support can pay for transport, equipment, training and or assistance with job tasks. The package and promise of ATW, looks and sounds like the ultimate support for any potential Disabled employee or entrepreneur, but recent experiences paint a very different picture.

When Labour unveiled cuts to disability benefits earlier this year and were beaten into retreat on the PIP proposals, the Chancellor, name-checked the governments “best kept secret” (the Access to Work scheme) as a programme that could help those who will lose out to get a job. It seems a real shame that Miss Reeves didn’t expand on the fact that the ATW scheme is in disarray and on the verge of implosion and not fit for purpose for employee or employer as it stands, but perhaps, the team at ATW just said, “All fine!” while standing amidst rubble and drowning in paperwork.

According to the data, there are currently 62,000 Access to Work applications still waiting for decisions and another 33,000 people stuck with unpaid claims. These are Disabled people wanting to work but are at risk of losing their job or have already lost their job. So, why? Well, the disability minister explained that there is a backlog and that there is a large increase in applications that has resulted in the system slowing down. He then said ministers were looking at “whether actually employers could do more” (anyone asked them?) through some “fairly significant reforms to Access to Work”. This is the same minister who recently admitted signing off on orders that have led to widespread cuts to Disabled people’s support packages. The Scheme is in utter disarray from top to bottom.

Whether due to slowing down, financial or staffing issues, the average wait time has risen from 46 days to 85 days in the last year alone, if the benefits bill is rising, access to work has just said to it “hold my beer.” The minister needs to get control of this, stop looking, start confirming, start investing. Waiting times are costing Disabled people homes, jobs, businesses and of course money. It’s not something to be taken lately, it’s something that needs urgent attention to resolve, these are actual people’s lives being held in stasis because of a fear of financially expanding a system that is essential to the governments plans. Utterly bewildering, that you know you will receive an influx of applications but are not ready to handle them, barn door, horse bolted.

The overall confusion and continuing chaos were made worse when a DWP staff member leaked proposed changes to ATW. These were picked up by many campaigners and shared. The DWP responded saying that these changes are not currently going ahead but gave no definite answer to say if they will be put in place later. To quote the DWP “There are no immediate plans to change Access to Work.” In short, the DWP was not denying the existence of the leaked plans but would not confirm any definitive details on them either. That’s not going to reassure anyone about to apply to the Scheme.

However, hot on the heels of this, some internal restructuring was leaked to the press, including introducing major funding cuts, such as a steep reduction in allocations for assistive software and equipment, and pressure on support workers to accept fees so low that they fall below minimum wage (a practice that is illegal, btw)  Not a confidence builder if you are now looking for work, and not logical In any sense of the word if more employment is your plan. Pure madness. Dizzy yet reader? Communication from the DWP remains as effective as putting up a mirror with a tomato.

How does it make sense to set about the benefits system, cutting and restricting money and eligibility, and at the same time limit support to Disabled people needing help with the working world? It’s like building a house from the roof down and hoping it will support itself. From a policy perspective (where I sit) it’s incredulous that dots are not joined between government policies and departments and that there is a failure to understand what is needed for people looking for work or staying in work. My head spins. Ensure the support is there first, invested, staffed, ready, maintained, then we can maybe talk about what to do about benefits.

The thing is, Access to Work, when invested in and supported does makes fiscal as well as employment sense. A report released by the centre for social and economic inclusion found in 2015, that based on the then available evidence, the overall benefits of ATW to society outweigh its costs by a considerable margin, making it a beneficial form of public spending. So, what is put in, pays back more, surely that is a good reason for a fiscal obsessed administration to invest? Even the DWP themselves released research that found that providing extra funding had a positive impact on both employees and employers.

This government has a dream. They are looking at an ambition of getting 80% of Disabled people in the workforce. This figure alone in the timescale allotted seems incredibly challenging. There is also a cruel irony in the figure of 80% as Josh Wintersgill, a wheelchair user, running a successful business for six years, has seen his ATW support slashed by 80%. And josh is not alone, the stories of cuts to existing packages continue to spill out.

Invest, end rumour, better communication between government, the community and DPOs are first steps to ending this mobius strip of confusion and worry. The Government need to get this house in order and fast. You simply cannot expect more Disabled people (with job coaches springing up everywhere) to descend onto a “best kept secret” and find it in a state of collapse, confusion, bad communication and employer pushback.

As a committed change maker, I am waiting and wanting to see and assist in resolutions, it’s my job, yet the DWP is keeping me and fellow Disabled campaigners at an arm’s length because either they don’t know what they are doing, or because they don’t want us to know. Well, we all need to know what is going on and how ATW is going to be fixed for the thousands of Disabled workers who need it.

Let's end it here. By the time this has done the rounds we may have definite direction, or the DWP could just let us all run ATW. Whose up for that?