Yes. Access to Work grants can fund a job coach or support worker, paid 100% with no employer cost-share, up to a £69,260 annual cap (2026-27), but expect a long wait, averaging 109 days by late 2025.
Who qualifies
Access to Work is a government grant run by the Department for Work and Pensions. It can pay for a support worker, and that category includes a job coach who gives your employee one-to-one help to settle in and stay in role. To qualify, your employee needs a disability or a physical or mental health condition that affects their work, and they need a paid job or to be about to start one. A formal diagnosis is not required, so an autistic or ADHD employee who is still on a waiting list can still be eligible if the condition affects how they work.
What the employer pays
This is the part most guidance buries. For special equipment and premises adaptations, the employer shares the cost, contributing up to a set threshold and then 20% of the spend between that threshold and £10,000. A job coach is treated differently. Support workers and coaching are funded at 100% in defined situations, including a new starter in their first six weeks, self-employed people, and the Mental Health Support Service, so the grant carries the whole cost rather than the business. The grant does not have to be paid back and does not affect the employee's other benefits.
Eligible is not the same as granted. An Access to Work adviser still decides what the grant covers and at what level, after a conversation or a workplace assessment, so the £69,260 figure is a ceiling for the year, not a guaranteed sum.
The catch: a long wait
The grant is generous; the queue is not. The National Audit Office found the average processing time rose from 28 working days in 2020-21 to 66 in 2024-25, and to 109 days by November 2025. Outstanding applications climbed from 21,700 in March 2022 to 62,100 in March 2025. Plan around the wait rather than the headline.
- Apply early. The 100% funding for a new starter depends on applying within their first six weeks, so do not wait for problems to build up.
- The employee leads the claim. Access to Work is the person's grant, not the employer's, so they apply, though you support them and may be asked to confirm the role and any adjustments.
- Budget for the gap. Decide what interim coaching or line-manager support you can offer while the application is in the queue.
For the wider list of what the grant covers, see what Access to Work pays for, and for the steps, see how an employee applies for Access to Work. You can read the rules on the GOV.UK Access to Work page.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.