Access to Work grants - worth recommending to staff?

Access to Work grants - worth recommending to staff?

Access to Work can help employees to start or stay in work if they have a disability or physical or mental health condition. It works by providing grants to pay for support and adaptations. Is Access to Work worth recommending to your staff?

An overview of Access to Work

You have a statutory duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees. While Access to Work does, is easy for support that goes beyond the reasonable adjustments that you're obliged to provide. Access to Work doesn't provide the support itself though, it provides a grant to reimburse the agreed costs of the support that's needed. The grant can cover the employee's extra costs of working due to their disability/health condition, such as (1) specialist aids and equipment; (2) extra travel to and from work if they can't use public transport; and (3) the cost of a support worker. Access to Work also includes a Mental Health Support Service.

Tip. Access to Work can support you to hire disabled staff and to retain existing employees who develop a disability.

Eligibility

To be eligible for support, an individual must: (1) have a disability or physical or mental health condition that means they need an aid, adaptation or financial or human support to do their job or to get to and from work; (2) be 16 or over; (3) be in, or about to start, paid employment; and (4) live and work in England, Scotland or Wales. Tip. The health condition can be a temporary one.

Trap. It's the employee who must apply for a grant, not you (see The next step). Access to Work has huge claim backlogs though (62,000 as of February 2025), so decisions won't be quick.

Tip. Encourage staff to apply to Access to Work if they need support that you believe goes beyond your statutory duty.

Access to Work grants

The level of grant is based on the employee's needs. You may have to share the cost with Access to Work if the employee has been working for you for over six weeks when they first apply for a grant and the cost relates to special aids/equipment or adaptations to premises/equipment. Otherwise, Access to Work will generally pay grants of 100%.

Where cost share applies, Access to Work will refund up to 80% of the costs between a threshold and £10,000. You contribute 100% of costs up to the threshold and 20% between the threshold and £10,000. Any balance over £10,000 will normally be met by Access to Work, subject to a current maximum of £66,000 per year. The amount of the threshold is nil if you have 0 to 49 employees.

Number of Employees / Amount of Threshold

0 to 49 Employees Nil

50 to 249 Employees £500

Over 250 Employees £1,000

Trap. You (or your employee) must pay for the approved support and then the employee must claim the costs back, with any cost share deducted.

Finally, the government is consulting until 30 June 2025 on the future of Access to Work, in particular its cost and recovery model, as it currently only supports 1% of working disabled people.

Access to Work provides grants for support that isn't covered by your statutory duty to make reasonable adjustments. It is worth recommending to new starters and existing staff but bear in mind that you may have to share the cost of that support if the employee has been working for you for more than six weeks when they first apply for a grant.