People waiting over a year for Access to Work support as Lib Dems call on Government to scrap “gutted” welfare legislation

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

Someone waited 393 days for a decision on their Access to Work application which offers support to help people into employment a Liberal Democrat Written Parliamentary Question reveals.

It comes as the Government has announced a series of concessions on their controversial welfare bill after a major backbench rebellion. The original reforms would have cut the level of support for new PIP claimants which the Liberal Democrats said would create a two-tier system between old and new claimants, while still making it harder for disabled people to stay in work.

The cuts would have also risked thousands of carers losing their Carer’s Allowance as the person they care for needs to be eligible for PIP to receive the support. Although the Government said it will now entirely remove the PIP cuts from the bill following last minute concessions to Labour rebels, the text of the legislation voted on this week still included them.

The Written Parliamentary Questions by the party already revealed failings in giving people the support they need through the Access to Work scheme. They revealed that someone waited 393 days for a decision to be made on their application for into-employment support with the average wait for a decision being close to two months (57 days).

The WPQs also found that of the 157,000 applications for support in 2024/25 close to 20%, or 29,000, had not received a decision by the end of the financial year.

Access to Work helps people get or stay in work if they have a physical or mental health condition or disability. It can include a grant to help pay for practical support with work, support managing mental health at work or money to pay for communication support at job interviews. These delays disincentivise employers from offering jobs to disabled people as they can hire non-disabled people into roles faster.

The Lib Dems have said that the Government’s handling of this bill was “no way to make legislation let alone run a country”, with the bill rushed through and the full impact assessment of the changes not published. The party said that they would continue to oppose the bill, pointing out that this chop-and-change approach is no way to run our country or reform the welfare system.

Instead they called on the Government to scrap this flawed legislation, go back to the drawing board, and work cross-party to actually bring down the welfare bill by getting more people into work and fixing our broken health and care systems.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:

“This is no way to make legislation let alone run a country. The past week has caused anxiety and confusion for all those who were at risk of being affected by these changes.

“The original bill would have stripped support from disabled people and those who care for them and actually put up more barriers to work rather than bringing them down.

“The Government must accept that this gutted bill is not fit for purpose, withdraw the legislation and come forward with a properly thought through proposal to reduce welfare spending without targeting those in desperate need of support.

“That means speeding up Access to Work decisions, ending the crisis in our NHS so people can go back to their jobs rather than languishing in pain, and making people’s money go further, such as by introducing an energy social tariff.” 

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

First reported by the Mirror here.

The Written Parliamentary Questions by Daisy Cooper MP can be found here and here.

Information on the Access to Work scheme can be found here.