How do we arrange a workplace needs assessment for an employee?

Your employee applies for an Access to Work grant themselves at gov.uk; you cannot apply for them. A DWP case manager then arranges a free workplace needs assessment and recommends support your business may part-fund. Access to Work is the government scheme that funds support a disabled or neurodivergent person needs to do their job.

The steps, in order

1. Your employee applies. They check eligibility and apply online at gov.uk/access-to-work, or by phone on 0800 121 7479. You cannot submit the application for them. What you can do is point them to the form, give them time to make the call, and confirm their job details when asked.
2. A DWP case manager makes contact. They speak to both your employee and you about what gets in the way at work. If the support needs are not clear, they arrange a workplace assessor to look at the role and recommend equipment, software, a support worker or travel help.
3. The assessment happens. It can be by phone, video or in person, and it is free to both you and your employee. The assessor writes up what would help and what it would cost.
4. The grant is decided. Access to Work tells your employee what it will fund. You may be asked to pay part of the cost (see below), and you usually buy the items, then claim the grant share back.

Who pays, and the timeline

The assessment is free. The support it recommends is cost-shared with you only if your employee has worked for you for more than six weeks when they apply; anyone still in their first six weeks gets 100% coverage. For a business with 0 to 49 staff you pay 20% of costs up to £10,000; 50 to 249 staff, the first £500 then 20% to £10,000; 250 or more, the first £1,000 then 20% to £10,000. Anything above £10,000 is met in full by Access to Work, and the most one person can be awarded in a year is £69,260 for awards made or reviewed between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027.

Apply early. The National Audit Office reported a large backlog, around 62,000 outstanding applications in March 2025, with waits to be allocated a case manager getting longer. The clock matters, so the sooner your employee applies, the sooner support starts.

What Access to Work will not do

Access to Work does not pay for reasonable adjustments: the changes you are legally required to make for a disabled employee under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010. It funds support over and above those adjustments. You cannot ask the scheme to cover, say, a flexible start time or a quieter desk, because those are your duty to provide and to pay for. A useful sibling answer is what a workplace needs assessment is, and how your employee applies for Access to Work.

If it stalls, or you need it faster

If the wait is too long for an employee who is struggling now, you can commission a private workplace needs assessment from an external provider and pay for it yourself. It is quicker, and the report can still support a later Access to Work application. Either way, keep making the reasonable adjustments you already owe in the meantime; the Equality Act duty does not pause while a grant is pending.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.