Access to Work rejections up 22% and DWP won't say why

Disability News Service reported on 21 May 2026 that the share of Access to Work applications rejected rose by more than 12% in 2024-25. Between April and October 2025-26 it rose by another 22%. DWP hasn't released the internal memo it believes caused the shift.

If you're dyslexic and planning a claim, this matters more than the usual backlog news. A slow decision is annoying. A decision that goes against you for reasons you can't see is a different problem.

What Disability News Service found

The reporter, John Pring, says he has used Freedom of Information requests for eight months to pin down when Minister Sir Stephen Timms was told about the change. He has been chasing the memo sent to Access to Work managers for nearly a year. DWP has also not supplied the notice that told case managers about new training.

DWP's answer, as DNS reports it, is that no records exist because this was "not a policy decision" needing ministerial approval. Ministers have repeatedly said other cuts came from case managers "applying the guidance with greater consistency".

Put those two things together and you get an odd picture. The rules for decisions may not have changed on paper, yet more people are being turned down. Nobody has published what "greater consistency" means in practice.

When the guidance reads the same but the outcomes change, your application has to carry more of the argument than it used to.

What DWP says it's doing about the delays

On 19 May 2026, two days before the DNS piece, DWP announced it would recruit 480 more case managers and caseworkers. That's a 72% increase on the 658 staff it has now, to be completed by September 2027 (GOV.UK, 19 May 2026). Staff numbers have already risen by about 30% since March 2024.

About 60,000 applicants are waiting for a decision, up from 48,270 at the end of June 2024. Claims have more than doubled since 2018/19. DWP says 96% of urgent applications are decided within 28 days.

More staff should shorten the queue. It doesn't tell you whether the extra people will approve more or fewer claims. That's the part the missing memo would answer.

Expect the queue to ease slowly through 2027, and don't count on rejection rates falling at the same pace.

Why a hidden rule hurts dyslexic applicants most

Dyslexia is easy to under-describe. People write "I struggle with spelling" when the real problem is ten emails a day, each one a small risk. A case manager reading a thin application may decide the support is a general work tool, something an employer would buy anyway.

That's a live risk, because DWP's own 200-case review found that about 40% of the cases it looked at should have been funded by an employer, an employee or the NHS (Public Accounts Committee report, 12 June 2026). We covered that in our earlier rights updates. A stricter reading of "this is the employer's job" will catch applications that don't show the dyslexia link.

Dictation software is the classic example: plenty of people use it for convenience, while you use it because writing under time pressure produces errors that hold you back. Your application needs to say that, with examples.

The case manager can only fund what the page shows, so show the dyslexia, the task and the tool in the same paragraph.

Your employer's duty doesn't wait for a decision

In the UK, section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 puts the duty to make reasonable adjustments on your employer. Access to Work is a separate grant that can reimburse costs. A delayed or refused grant doesn't switch the employer's duty off.

A tribunal case reported by Thrive Law in July 2026, Rashid v Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, involved a seven-month delay in putting support in place. The claimant won on three separate Equality Act grounds. The lesson is plain: an employer that sits and waits for a government decision is taking a legal risk, and you can say so politely.

This is how it plays out in real life. You apply, the queue is long, and your manager says "let's wait and see what Access to Work says". That sentence is the moment to write an email.

Ask your employer to provide the adjustment now and claim the cost back later, rather than leaving your work exposed for months.

How to write an application that survives a stricter read

Nobody outside DWP knows exactly what the stricter reading looks for. What follows is our inference from the figures above, not a published rule. It costs you nothing to do it.

• Name the task that causes the problem, such as writing client emails, reading long contracts or taking minutes.
• Say how dyslexia affects that task, with one concrete example from the last month.
• Name the tool or support, then say what it changes (time saved, errors avoided, work you can now take on).
• State what your employer already provides, so the case manager can see the request goes beyond that.
• Keep a copy of every form and email, with dates.

If you start a new job, the Access to Work Tech Fund has a route for new starters. Our Access to Work guide covers the steps, and the Access to Work calculator helps you work out what you might claim.

A specific application is harder to reject than a general one, so spend an extra hour on it.

If you're refused: ask for the reasons in writing

A refusal letter should say why. If yours is vague, reply and ask which part of the criteria your application didn't meet. Ask for a reconsideration too, and put your extra evidence in that request.

Rejection rates that rise this quickly mean more people will go through the reconsideration step. Treat it as a normal part of the process instead of a final answer. Our earlier piece on appealing an Access to Work rejection walks through the stages.

Keep your employer in the loop at every step. If the grant is refused, they still owe you the adjustment, and a written refusal helps show what you asked for and when.

A refusal ends one funding route, and your employer's duty carries on regardless.

If you work in the US

Access to Work doesn't exist in the US. The Americans with Disabilities Act puts the cost of reasonable accommodations on your employer unless it can show undue hardship. The Job Accommodation Network (askjan.org) gives free, confidential guidance on what to request for dyslexia.

US readers can skip the grant queue and go straight to a written accommodation request.

What this means for you

Dyslexia Awareness Week runs 5 to 11 October 2026, and the British Dyslexia Association has chosen "Dyslexia in real life: At work" as the theme (BDA, 17 September 2026). Plenty of people will raise the subject with managers this month. Use the moment.

Here's the call. If you're in the UK, send your employer a written request for the adjustment this week, apply for Access to Work in parallel, and write the application so the dyslexia link is impossible to miss. If you've been refused, ask for the reasons and a reconsideration.

If you haven't told your employer yet, our disclosure guide covers the options. You don't need a formal diagnosis for the employer's duty to apply, but a clear written request makes everything easier.

Don't wait for DWP to publish the rules, because your written request and your employer's duty are already in your hands.