Public Accounts Committee
12 March 2026
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Committee House of Commons
00:02 - 01:52
Speaker 1
Order, order. Welcome to the public accounts committee on Thursday 03/12/2026. The access to work scheme is demand led grant to help people obtain or stay in work if they have a physical or medical health condition or disability. It is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions, DWP, and support for individuals is usually approved for three years, with a maximum total annual funding of £69,260 per individual. Both the demand and spend for this scheme has doubled since twenty eighteen-nineteen with the total number of applications reaching more than a 157,000 in twenty four-five with a spend of 321,000,000.
Concerns have been raised over the increase in the number of outstanding applications and payments and the time taken to process pay applications. So today we will be looking at to challenge the DWP on this issue and examine the impact of these delays and backlogs which have trebled in the last three years causing hardship to some applicants and some employers and charities. We will also be scrutinizing whether DWP's administration of the scheme is aligned with policy intent, exploring whether the scheme provides value for money, as well as DWP's plan for reforming access to the work scheme. So I'd like to warmly thank all those who have taken time to submit their evidence list. Been a large number.
And while we've been unable to publish all of these submissions, they have been very useful to the committee and help inform our questioning today, for which we are very grateful. Now, I'd like the witnesses to to introduce themselves. So Peter, you're very welcome to the committee. You are the permanent secretary. Would you just like to briefly introduce yourself?
01:52 - 02:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. Sure. Thank you, chair. I'm Peter Scofield, permanent secretary at DWP. And I'm joined by colleagues along my side alongside
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