Access to Work provides individual practical support and advice to help to overcome barriers to work and includes an Access to Work Mental Health Support Service – but not everyday counselling.
Access to Work
Access to Work provides financial assistance for employers to cover the costs of support over and above reasonable adjustments for Disabled workers, with the express purpose of keeping them in work.
Claiming Access to Work
Access to Work support covers a wide range of interventions beyond ‘reasonable adjustments’ associated with overcoming work-related barriers resulting from disability. The support package is agreed based on individual need.
Examples of the kind of help available through Access to Work are:
- A communicator, advocate or BSL interpreter, if you’re D/deaf or have communication difficulties.
- A support worker, such as a reader for somebody with a visual impairment; communicator for a D/deaf person; a specialist job coach for a person with a learning difficulty; or a helper for personal care needs at work.
- Specialist equipment (or alterations to existing equipment) to suit your particular need.
- Help towards the additional costs of taxi fares if you cannot use public transport to get to work.
- Support via Access to Work’s dedicated Mental Health Support Service.
NEU Disabled members have requested and received the following provisions under Access to Work:
- Additional person in the classroom to hand out papers and collect in as well as moving around the class when the teacher cannot – a class/job aide.
- Taxis to and from school.
- Upgraded laptop to run adaptive software (e.g. Dragon) – extra processing speeds needed – or the extra cost of upgrading from a standard laptop.
- Interactive TV as class board (75” interactive tablet smart TV).
- Class set of iPads along with a master iPad to give feedback from across the room. Connects to Class smart TV to allow students to share their iPads to the screen.
What Access to Work will not finance
The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on an employer to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees. Access to Work funding cannot be used to support these adjustments.
Access to work will also not fund items which are regarded as standard equipment, standard business costs or standard health and safety requirements. This means that any item which would normally be needed to do the job, whether a person is disabled or not, will not be paid for. No item normally provided by the NHS, or an enhancement to an item provided by the NHS.
No item covered by Motability is provided.
Eligibility
To qualify to apply for Access to Work, you must:
- Be 16 or over.
- Be in paid work (or starting work in the next 12 weeks).
- Live and work in England, Scotland or Wales – there is a different system in Northern Ireland.
You must have a disability, illness or health condition that means you need additional support to do your job. This can include:
- A physical disability.
- A developmental condition such as Autism.
- Having ADHD or Dyslexia.
- An illness such as diabetes or epilepsy.
- A temporary condition, like a broken leg.
- A mental health condition such as anxiety or depression.
You do not need to be diagnosed with a condition to apply.
Support to stay in work
Once you have applied and been accepted, your assessor will decide with you what you need.
There is no set amount for an Access to Work grant. How much you get depends on your specific case. The grant will only cover the support needed to let you stay in work or in self-employment. The grant is not means tested and will not affect any benefits that you receive.
There is an annual cap on the total amount of support that can be provided under Access to Work; this is currently set at £60,700. (2021)
Each assessment usually covers a 3-year period and then you can re-apply.
Access to Work would normally cover all additional costs over £10,000, subject to the cap.
Thresholds
| Employer size | Access to Work contribution | Notes | Illustration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employers with less than 50 staff | Access to Work can pay 80% of the approved costs. | This would include some single academy primaries. | NA |
| Employers with 50 to 249 staff | The employer will have to pay the first £500 and Access to Work can then pay 80% of the approved costs up to £10,000. | This would cover some single academy secondaries. | £500 + £1900 (20% of £9500) = £2400 approx. |
| Large employers with 250 or more staff: | The employer will have to pay the first £1,000 and Access to Work can then pay 80% of the approved costs up to £10,000. | This would include most MATs and maintained schools. | £1000 + £1800 (20% of £9000) = £2800 approx. |
Making a claim
You can apply:
Online through the gov.uk website.
By phone: 0800 121 7479.
By Textphone 0800 121 7579.
NB: Access to Work also has a BSL video relay service and is available in Welsh.
You will need:
- Your contact details.
- Workplace address and postcode.
- Name of workplace contact.
- Email address and phone number of your workplace contact.
- Information about how your condition affects your work and what support you think you need. This is not the assessment, just a basic outline of the support you think you need to give the assessor an idea of what they need to research.
Preparing for assessments
Have ideas of what support you would like. The assessor will have their own ideas; most will be suitable for working in an office situation, not necessarily in a classroom.
Talk to others with similar conditions about what they have been able to receive and point this out to the assessor - reach out to other disabled members in regional/online/WhatsApp groups.
Point out that things are not commonly supplied to staff at your place of work, i.e. laptops etc. They may make assumptions that all teachers get given a personal use laptop.
Do not say you will use anything for personal use. This is very important!
Ask for the earth… remember all they can say is no.
Challenging decisions
After the assessment, you will be allocated your main Access to Work case worker.
The caseworker makes the decisions on what you get from the assessment.
You can challenge and have a reassessment or additional assessment if you think something was missed.
Change in circumstances
Your package normally lasts for 3 years
If you have a rolling yearly element, it will be renewed each year, i.e. for a job aide or taxis, etc. This may be reassessed for inflation etc.
If you have a change in circumstances, you can ask for a reassessment or additional assessment at any time. Keep in mind the cap of £60,700. Employer contributions are only made once every 3 years.
Back to top