Recommendation 6

In some cases, taxpayers have been paying for workplace adjustments that employers should have been covering. The Department intends that the Access to Work scheme provides support over and above the reasonable adjustments that employers are legally required to make. It says that the scheme should fund those adjustments that are necessary but that it is not reasonable for an employer to provide, and notes that what is reasonable will vary according the nature of the employer. The Department is concerned, however, that some employers, particularly large ones, do not do enough to meet their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010, and that the scheme may be filling the gaps. In its 2024 employer survey, the Department found that 80% of employers were taking action to support disabled staff. However, it believes there is much more that employers need to do in many cases to reach the standard of the best. In 2025, the Department found, from a review of 200 cases, that some 40% of support funded by the scheme should have been provided by the employer, the employee or the NHS. recommendation a. The Department should set out clearly what support it expects employers to provide, with examples of reasonable adjustments covering employers of different sizes. b. The Department should engage directly with employers to establish how they are meeting their duty to provide reasonable adjustments as part of the process of assessing what support the scheme should fund for an applicant.