Frustrated ambition: disabled people want Access to Work expanded and improved
Disability Rights UK has submitted written evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s inquiry into Access to Work.
Liz Sayce says ‘Access to Work should be viewed as an investment in disabled people fulfilling our potential - not as a programme to be tightly rationed through rules, bureaucracy and lack of promotion’.
We are hugely grateful to our members who shared their experiences and views of Access to Work, which have formed the basis of this submission.
We recognise that Government has acted on some of disabled people’s demands, and some recommendations from reviews and expert panels – for instance, getting rid of the hated ‘standard list’ of things it wouldn’t fund, extending Access to Work to work experience and supported internships, ending cost sharing for small businesses, and doing some marketing of the programme – but now we need a step change. Recent changes have brought a focus on scrutiny of costs rather than the prime purpose of enabling people to work - and this is causing real frustration to disabled people. Numbers of people being helped have been rising for the last 2 years – but before that there was a decline, so the net effect is small. The budget has increased slightly – but only after a decline. We need a strong, long-term trend of investment to support more and more people to get the support they need to get and keep employment. And action to address some specific difficulties with support for self-employed people, and for people with fluctuating conditions, mental health or learning difficulties.
Liz added ‘Everyone agrees Access to Work is cost effective – so it’s time to expand and improve it. In 2011 I proposed doubling the numbers using it; we need Government to set clear success measures and publish progress against them, including numbers and diversity of people supported, impact on getting and keeping jobs – and, importantly, satisfaction amongst disabled people and employers with the process, the quality of customer service, the timeliness and individual attention’.