Access to Work: Grant, Eligibility and How to Apply

Access to Work has three parts. The first is a grant to help pay for practical support with your work. The second is support with managing your mental health at work. The third is money to pay for communication support at job interviews.

The grant could help pay for things like:

• ✓Yes: specialist equipment and assistive software
• ✓Yes: support workers, like a BSL interpreter, a job coach or a travel buddy
• ✓Yes: costs of travelling to work, if you cannot use public transport
• ✓Yes: adaptations to your vehicle so you can get to work
• ✓Yes: physical changes to your workplace

Your workplace can include your home if you work from there some or all of the time. The factsheet for customers adds disability awareness training for your colleagues and the cost of moving your equipment if you change location or job. You or your employer may need to pay some costs up front and claim them back later.

Mental health support through Access to Work might include a tailored plan to help you get or stay in work, and one-to-one sessions with a mental health professional. You apply directly to either Able Futures or Maximus, and you must only apply to one. If you have had mental health support through Access to Work before, you cannot apply again. Communication support at a job interview is paid for if you are deaf or hard of hearing and need a BSL interpreter or lipspeaker, or if you have a physical or mental health condition or learning difficulty and need communication support. It has its own eligibility rules.

For the grant and for mental health support, you must have a physical or mental health condition or disability that means you need support to do your job or get to and from work. You must also be 16 or over, be in paid work (or be about to start or return to paid work in the next 12 weeks), and live and work in England, Scotland or Wales.

The condition can be a physical disability, a learning disability or related condition, a developmental condition like autism spectrum disorder, ADHD or dyslexia, an illness such as diabetes or epilepsy, a temporary condition like a broken leg, or a mental health condition such as anxiety or depression. You do not need to be diagnosed with a condition to apply.

• ✓Yes: Paid work can be full or part-time and can include employment, self-employment, an apprenticeship, a work trial or work experience, an internship or a work placement
• ✓Yes: Voluntary work does not count
• ✓Yes: You can still apply if you work from home some or all of the time
• ✓Yes: If you are employed, you can get support however much you earn or have in savings
• ✓Yes: If you are self-employed, you must have an annual turnover of at least £6,500

If you are a civil servant, your employer provides support instead of Access to Work, so contact your employer to arrange an assessment. You cannot get Access to Work if you live in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

The GOV.UK guide says you can get Access to Work at the same time as most benefits, as long as you work more than 1 hour a week. If you get Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), you can get both at the same time if you work less than 16 hours a week, and there are rules about working while claiming ESA. If you claim Universal Credit and have a disability or health condition, you can apply for Access to Work for any paid work you do.

See our guides to ESA and Universal Credit for how work affects those claims.

Access to Work will not pay for reasonable adjustments. These are the changes your employer must legally make to support you to do your job, and Access to Work will advise your employer if changes should be made as reasonable adjustments. The grant is also not for business start-up costs, and it cannot pay for the costs of setting up a business or cover costs while the business is being formed.

Your employer's duty to make reasonable adjustments is separate from the scheme. Our reasonable adjustments guide explains what an employer has to do.

There is no set amount for an Access to Work grant. How much you get depends on your specific case, and the grant only covers the support needed to let you stay in work or self-employed. Grants are capped. The cap is £69,260 a year for grants awarded or reviewed from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, and it has been £69,260 since 8 April 2024.

If you need extra support but have reached or nearly reached the maximum, speak to your Access to Work case manager. You can continue to get a grant of up to £69,260 a year.

Check you are eligible, then apply online or by calling the Access to Work helpline on 0800 121 7479, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. If phone calls are difficult for you, you can ask for all communication to be by email instead.

If you know what support you need, you do not need an assessment, and your case manager will discuss the award with you and build a package of support.

You claim online or by post. You will need the dates you had support, invoices or receipts showing the cost of your support, and bank details for the person or company who will receive the money. To claim online you need a GOV.UK One Login and the letter confirming your grant has been approved. For a postal claim, complete the paper claim form that came with your decision letter. You have 9 months to claim for costs.

If your grant pays for ongoing support such as a support worker, you need to renew it before it ends. Your decision letter says when it ends, and you can apply to renew 12 weeks before. Access to Work will also contact you 12 weeks before your support is due to end. If you are a civil servant whose grant ends on or after 1 April 2022, you cannot renew it and should contact your employer.

You must tell Access to Work by calling the helpline if your circumstances change, for example if your name, address or workplace address changes, you change jobs, or your condition changes. If you change employer, you may be able to transfer equipment, but you cannot automatically transfer awards for support workers or travel.

Access to Work is decided case by case, based on discussions with you and with your employer, so it is not possible to appeal against the level of an award. There is a reconsideration policy instead: everybody is entitled to one reconsideration of an award by a different Access to Work case manager, using the contact details at the top of your award letter. You can also call the helpline to ask someone to reconsider your application.

If your job role or employer changes, you can ask for your award to be reviewed as many times as your situation changes. Disagreeing with the level of your award does not on its own give grounds for a complaint, but if you have had poor customer service or think your claim was not handled correctly, you can use the complaints procedure.

The GOV.UK scheme does not cover Northern Ireland, where there is a different service called Access to Work (NI). It can help towards communication support, special aids and equipment, adaptations to premises and equipment, support getting to and from work, and extra travel costs because of disability. It can also help employers with extra costs that arise because of disability.

To apply, contact the Department for Communities by email at HealthandWorkSupportCo-ordination@communities-ni.gov.uk, or speak to a work coach in your local Jobs and Benefits office. The application must be made by the person with the disability. Help is approved for as long as it is needed up to a maximum of three years. Access to Work (NI) will not pay for reasonable adjustments, including standard equipment, standard business costs and standard health and safety requirements.