Disabled artists ‘facing Access to Work cuts, backlogs and inflexibility’

Disabled people working in the creative and cultural sectors are increasingly seeing cuts to the support they receive through the Access to Work (AtW) scheme, campaigners have warned.

Disabled artists have reported payments being stopped, cut or suspended by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), even as ministers are calling for more disabled people to be supported into work.

The concerns have led the disabled-led arts and culture consultancy BAP! to appeal for case studies of disabled people in the creative industries who have been affected by AtW problems.

That appeal came as employment minister Alison McGovern said there were currently about 55,000 AtW applications yet to be dealt with, in a response to a written question from Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson Steve Darling.

Tom Ryalls, founder and director of BAP!, said DWP appeared to struggle with the “gig economy” that disabled freelancers rely on, with unpredictable income and jobs.

They have already raised the issue with Labour’s arts and creative industries minister, Sir Chris Bryant, at a roundtable event, when they told him of “the importance of Access to Work in terms of disabled-led culture in England”.

Ryalls said Access to Work was a “cornerstone” in ensuring disabled people can have a say in “shaping national arts and culture”.

They said: “I think there’s a huge risk that if we see Access to Work increasingly reduce/reject applicants in the arts disproportionately, this money will have to come from elsewhere.

“The Equality Act won’t stop existing. In a sector where organisations are struggling for funding as it is, people are already talking about how we might need to turn to Arts Council England to cover more access costs for employment.”

This could reduce the funding available for project budgets for disabled artists, they said.

Ryalls said they hoped to use the case studies to “demonstrate the importance of AtW to disabled artists, arts workers, and the whole of the creative industries” and ensure the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and DWP “understand the impact any destabilisation of AtW might have on disabled-led arts and culture” as the new government drafts its cultural policy.

They said: “In the cultural sector we’ve worked really hard to reinforce the importance of disabled people leading art and culture, instead of being positioned solely as consumers or participants.

“Destabilising Access to Work puts this progress under threat, and it feels like a clear signal that the agency and national contribution of disabled artists is not valued.”

They said that even disabled people running arts organisations were “losing significant amounts of the support they need to work”, putting their jobs and those of their employees at risk.

Ryalls said: “Decisions feel illogical, and it is incredibly difficult to communicate with AtW about any decision they make.”

They warned that undermining AtW “threatens the economic stability of the wider sector”, which would have to meet more of the bill for access measures required by law, or might decide to employ fewer disabled people, even though that is now a criteria often assessed in funding applications.

They said: “Access to Work is a unique programme in that it keeps people in work; I can’t see why any government serious about growth in the creative industries wouldn’t unequivocally support it.

“It will become incredibly difficult to make sure public investment in the arts is representative of the UK population without an effective Access to Work system, and action needs to be taken now before we get to that point.”

The concerns raised by BAP! have been echoed by other disabled artists and disability arts organisations.

Jess Thom, co-artistic director of Touretteshero, said Access to Work was “a vital equalising scheme” and allowed her “to do the job I love and am good at”.

But she said: “Right now, Access to Work isn’t working for disabled artists or creative organisations.

“In addition to the huge backlog of new applications, changes of circumstances and renewals are taking six to eight months to process.

“There’s also a worrying pattern of decisions that suggest not all types of work are being valued equally.

“These issues are putting huge pressure on disabled artists, pressure our non-disabled peers don’t have to consider.

“While the issues surrounding Access to Work are deeply troubling, the silence from the wider sector, creative press and funders makes this feel like an issue disabled professionals are facing alone.”

On a personal level, Thom has been waiting for more than three months just to speak to AtW about replacing the specialist wheels she needs for her wheelchair.

She said: “I don’t need additional funding, just the permission to use some of my existing award slightly differently.

“It should go without saying that as an artistic director who uses a wheelchair, wheels are fundamental to me being able to work.

“I should be focusing my energy on leading our company rather than spending huge amounts of time and energy on whether I’m going to have wheels or not.”

Zoe Partington, interim chief executive of disability arts organisation DaDa, said the government was “a long way off” ensuring that AtW was flexible enough to provide the additional support disabled artists need to deliver their performances, workshops and exhibitions.

She said AtW had the potential to do much more to support change but that would require “honest dialogue” with the government.

She said: “Generally, AtW is set as a defined monthly support and fails to understand the nature of artistic work, the intense schedule in contrast to the research process, and some artists require more support some months than others.

“DaDa tries to support disabled artists’ access requirements, as we know AtW doesn’t provide enough for them.”

This need for disability-led arts organisations to spend more on accessibility than other arts organisations can lead to a “sense of responsibility, tiredness, forever fighting for change”, she said.

DaDa is currently preparing for next year’s DaDaFest International 40 festival, and it will need to share some of the “weight” of ensuring accessibility for disabled artists appearing at the festival, which will inevitably impact on the festival’s budgets, quality and staff and how many disabled artists DaDa will be able to support.

Calum Perrin, a disabled artist and musician, and currently a musician in residence with Paraorchestra, said AtW was important because it is “more generous and requires less evidence and hoop-jumping” than disability benefits, and does not require “a horrible assessment process and they don’t invade your privacy trying to police every aspect of how your funding is used”.

He said: “They are flexible and I am able to use whoever I want as a support worker, which is really essential being an artist, and someone who works across disciplines.”

And he said time sheets for support workers can now be submitted online rather than sent through the post, while it is also possible to check online how much funding is left.

But he said communicating with AtW was “incredibly difficult”, with emails left unanswered and 90-minute waits for calls to be answered.

DWP refused to comment on the concerns this week, although it claimed in a background briefing note that all AtW grants were tailored towards supporting the needs of disabled applicants, which included taking account of their field of work.

DCMS had failed to comment by noon today (Thursday).

Picture: Jess Thom (left) and Tom Ryalls

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