(Why) Is the government cutting Access to Work, and what does this mean for disabled people?

In March 2025, the latest ‘labour market activation’ policies from the current government were announced. This is a polite and scholarly way of saying that the government planned to introduce policies to push people into work. Notably, the impact fell most acutely on disabled people through the proposals to cut disability welfare based on the moral panic of rising budgets and claimant numbers. This blog post asks whether the moral panic is justified, and explores what the centrally-administered ‘Access to Work’ scheme should be funding.

Labour markets are designed, typically, by and for non-disabled people. Those with impairments – be these physical impairments, mental distress, learning impairments or energy impairments – are disabled by the environmental and attitudinal barriers that continue to define markets, whether these are labour, housing, debt, or any other markets. The fact that such barriers to disabled people’s inclusion exist is attested to by the existence of...Read full article