Clueless DWP doesn’t know why Access to Work reconsiderations are so high

Access to Work failures rumble on, and now the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has all but outright admitted it has no idea why reconsiderations for awards have been surging.

However, a campaign group has put forward one idea. Unsurprisingly, it has pointed the finger at the DWP’s sneaky cuts by stealth to the disability employment grant.

What’s more, the high level of reconsiderations makes a mockery out of the DWP’s sham excuse for what’s driving the cuts.

Access to Work cuts: reconsiderations surging

The government-funded disability employment scheme provides grants to pay for support that enables disabled people to enter or stay in work.

It covers a broad range of support that can include aids and equipment, costs for taxis or adaptations to vehicles, interpreters, support workers, and job aides.

The level of support the DWP awards is meant to be according to an individual’s needs.

When an individual doesn’t agree with the results of their award for Access to Work, they can request the DWP get a different case manager to review the decision.

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), these ‘reconsiderations’ have shot up in the past five years.

Notably, reconsideration requests rose from 194 in 2021/22 to 385 in 2023/24. By 2024/25, these had surged eight-fold on 2021/22 figures, hitting 1,575 requests.

The DWP’s doesn’t have a clue

In February, Labour MP Johanna Baxter grilled the government on this. It was during a Work and Pensions inquiry session on employment support for disabled people.

DWP minister Diana Johnson’s answer suggested the recent cuts to awards might have something to do with it.

Notably, Johnson referred to the DWP’s excuse that case managers are applying guidance “in a more consistent way”. Department ministers and officials have been offering this up to defend the sudden wave of cuts to disabled peoples Access to Work awards.

In May 2025, Decode – an organisation which supports thousands of disabled creatives in navigating Access to Work applications – found that the DWP had reduced Access to Work for nine in 10 people renewing their awards. On average, it identified how the DWP had reduced awards by 53%. Similarly, the DWP was granting 86.5% of new applicants less than they had requested. And disabled people reporting devastating cuts to their awards has only continued apace.

So in that context, Johnson’s answer would only make sense. Of course, the minister was reticent to admit that this meant the department was wrongly slashing awards through its supposed new case manager ‘consistency’.

But significantly, Johnson ultimately hedged on the cause of the increase in reconsiderations. She promised to send the committee further information.

Now, the minister has indeed written to the committee again. However, she has all but admitted that the department doesn’t actually have a clue why reconsiderations are surging.

Still no answers over Access to Work

Notably, in a letter the committee published in April, Johnson told the inquiry that:

Applications to the Access to Work scheme more than doubled between 2018/19 and 2024/25 (from 76,100 to 157,000), We also saw an increase in the volume of reconsiderations in 2024/25 however cannot say with certainty that the increase in reconsiderations is solely linked to the increase in applications. We have been working to improve the decision making throughout the scheme, and as the guidance is applied with greater consistency, we would expect the numbers to reduce.

That Johnson pointed to applications little over doubling – over a longer time period – to explain Access to Work reconsiderations rising more than eight-fold shows that the DWP is still grasping at straws to explain the drastic increase.

In other words, it made clear that the department hasn’t even attempted to investigate the reasons behind the sudden rise.

As DWP continues to feign ignorance – a disabled-led campaign group has put forward one obvious answer. And crucially, it meant turning the spotlight back on the department’s sweeping cuts to Access to Work awards.

DWP excuse doesn’t add up

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been separately carrying out an inquiry on Access to Work scheme failures.

In a letter to the committee, the Access to Work Collective highlighted that:

A reported 72% of reconsiderations result in decisions being revised, indicating that a substantial proportion of initial decisions may be incorrect.

Our own evidence reflects this pattern. We have received consistent reports of awards being
reduced at renewal despite no change in need, leading to challenges and reconsideration requests.

As such, the collective challenged the idea that the DWP is in fact applying awards with greater consistency. Rather, it instead suggested it’s “inconsistent initial decisions” that’s driving the spiralling numbers of reconsiderations.

So far from case managers awarding Access to Work according to the guidance, the high proportion of revised awards showed the DWP’s justification for the cuts isn’t adding up.

What’s more the group pointed out the fact that maybe, just maybe, the high levels of reconsiderations were also compounding the scheme’s appalling delays.

In particular, it argued that the cuts were creating a “self-reinforcing cycle”, describing how:

inconsistent initial decisions increase reconsiderations; reconsiderations consume disproportionate resource; and reduced capacity contributes directly to backlog growth. Delays therefore appear to be driven not only by external demand, but by avoidable rework within the system.

In March, the DWP told the PAC that the department was making applicants wait 37 weeks for a decision. For self-employed people, it was even worse – at 80 weeks. And even since then, wait times have climbed further. They now sit at 38 weeks and 86 respectively.

Labour doesn’t care about disabled people

Of course, none of what the Access to Work Collective highlighted fits the DWP’s convenient narrative. This is of course that it’s improving the service for disabled people with better application of the guidance. It’s clear that’s not what’s actually happening.

At the end of the day, the scheme’s atrocious delays and cuts to awards speak for themselves.

If Access to Work isn’t actually helping disabled people enter or stay in work, then it’s not doing what it’s there for.

Labour continues to target disabled claimants – cutting their benefits and coercing them into unproven work programmes – all as it fails to provide the Access to Work support they actually need.

Because ultimately, this Labour government cares less about actually supporting disabled people than they do about making ‘savings’ from them. No amount of nonsense around ‘consistent’ decision-making can hide that shameful reality.

Featured image via the Canary

By Hannah Sharland

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