Darling accuses DWP of ‘absolutely shameful’ cover-up over Access to Work changes

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been accused of an “absolutely shameful” cover-up, after refusing to release documents that should show why disabled people across the country have faced cuts to their Access to Work support.

Disabled campaigners have been warning for the last 18 months of DWP cuts and inconsistent decisions on their Access to Work (AtW) claims.

But when social security and disability minister Sir Stephen Timms was challenged on these apparent cuts this summer, he insisted that no guidance had been issued to reduce support, and he said: “No changes have been made to Access to Work policy.”

In his response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson Steve Darling in July, he said instead that guidance was “now being more consistently applied” and that “work has been underway to improve [AtW] decision-making by applying the guidance with greater consistency, to provide a fairer process”.

He said: “This may mean that some awards change at the point of renewal, but there has been no change in Scheme policy, or instruction to reduce support levels.”

But Sir Stephen added: “Any updates to operational guidance are reflected through the published version available online at GOV.UK.”

Disability News Service (DNS) subsequently submitted a freedom of information request for DWP to provide all the changes to AtW “operational guidance” in the last 24 months.

But DWP has now replied to say that, although it holds this information, it would take more than three-and-a-half working days to determine “whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it”, so it is not obliged to seek the documents under freedom of information laws.

The DWP freedom of information team said this was because “the time period you have chosen is very wide and the topic you ask about is very broad” and suggested instead that DNS should “narrow your request to the latest version of a specific section of a particular topic within Access to Work that you are interested in”.

Speaking to DNS at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this week, Darling said this lack of transparency from DWP was “absolutely shameful”.

He said: “We need to have that transparency about what is going on, because the evidence we have has demonstrated that there have been significant changes [to people’s AtW support packages].”

He said he was convinced that cuts were being enacted by DWP even if they were coming through operational changes rather than alterations in policy.

He told DNS that he has heard from disabled people made redundant from disability charities who have been offered much lower levels of support when they applied for AtW support with their new job.

He said: “What was taken as a given with their previous employment, [AtW] are shrinking it down, whether it’s travel to work or the level of support workers, or the way support workers are employed.

“It is just absolutely perverse.

“I’m sure there are cuts; there are cost savings happening there and I’m sure the Treasury are delighted with it being sucked back into the system.”

A consultation on the future of the AtW scheme has now closed.

Work and pensions minister Baroness Sherlock said, in a written answer to the disabled Liberal Democrat peer Baroness [Celia] Thomas earlier this month, that DWP was now “reviewing all aspects of the Scheme now that the consultation has closed”.

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