Access to Work is a DWP grant funding equipment, support workers, travel and mental-health help beyond the reasonable adjustments employers must legally make under the Equality Act 2010 (cap £69,260 in 2025-26). DWP is the Department for Work and Pensions. The grant is paid towards the cost of supporting one named employee, and DWP usually approves an award for up to three years before it has to be renewed.
What the grant pays for
The employee applies, not you, and the support is theirs to take from job to job. A grant can cover:
- specialist equipment and assistive software;
- a support worker, such as a British Sign Language interpreter, a job coach or a travel buddy;
- the extra cost of getting to and from work;
- mental-health support while in work;
- communication support at a job interview.
What it does not pay for, and the cost share
This is the part the official pages bury. Access to Work will not pay for reasonable adjustments — the changes you are already required by law to make for a disabled worker. That duty sits with you under sections 20 and 21 of the Equality Act 2010, and it covers changing how you do things, altering a physical feature, and providing an auxiliary aid. The grant tops up support over and above that legal duty; it is not a way to fund the duty itself. On top of that, in some cases you have to chip in: where an employer is asked to meet part of the cost of approved support, DWP calls it a cost share.
For you as an employer that distinction is the one to get right. If you treat the grant as a substitute for adjustments, you stay exposed to a disability discrimination claim, because the duty under the Equality Act is yours whether or not a grant is approved. The practical read: make the adjustments you owe in any case, and use Access to Work for the extra, person-specific support — a job coach, a reader, the cost of a taxi to work — that the law does not already put on you.
Why the timing matters for employers
The scheme has a large backlog, so plan around it rather than waiting on it. According to the National Audit Office's February 2026 report, average processing time rose from 28 working days in 2020-21 to 66 working days in 2024-25, and reached 109 working days in November 2025. Outstanding applications stood at 62,100 at the end of March 2025. In practice an application can take many months to decide, so keep meeting your own adjustment duty in the meantime — the grant supplements what you do, it does not pause the clock on your obligations. For the funded items in detail, see what Access to Work pays for, and for how your employee starts a claim, see how an employee applies for Access to Work.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.