Results day came and went, and now the decisions are real.
An apprenticeship offer. A college place. A supported internship starting in September.
Whatever your young person chose, one worry sits underneath all of it: at school, the extra help was just there. A Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO), teaching assistants, an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that named exactly what they needed.
In a workplace, who pays for any of that?
That worry is fair, and you’re not the first parent or carer to feel it. It’s also mostly solved already, by a grant almost nobody mentions until you go looking for it.
Access to Work is a grant from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that pays for practical support so a disabled young person can start and stay in paid work. It funds job coaches, specialist equipment, travel and mental health support, and it covers apprenticeships and Department for Education (DfE) supported internships, not just ordinary jobs.
This guide covers England. Access to Work itself runs across England, Scotland and Wales (Northern Ireland has a different scheme), but any mention here of EHCPs, colleges or local authorities is England-specific.
What does Access to Work actually pay for?
gov.uk describes the grant as help to “get or stay in work if you have a physical or mental health condition or disability.” In practice, that breaks down into four things.
- Support workers - a job coach, British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter or travel buddy who helps at the workplace
- Specialist equipment and software - assistive technology or adaptations the job actually needs
- Travel costs - if your young person can’t use public transport to get to work
- Mental health support - one-to-one sessions with a mental health professional, available once per person
There’s an annual limit on how much any one person can claim, and DWP reviews the figure every year. It’s worth checking the current limit on gov.uk rather than relying on a number you saw last year.
One thing worth saying plainly: Access to Work tops up support. It doesn’t replace what an employer already owes your young person.
The scheme won’t pay for reasonable adjustments, because those are changes the employer must legally make anyway. This grant is for the support beyond that duty: the job coach hours, the specialist kit, the taxi fare public transport can’t cover.
Do apprentices and supported interns qualify?
Yes, and this is the part most families never hear until someone tells them directly.
Access to Work’s eligibility rules name an apprenticeship as one of the paid work types that qualify, alongside employment, self-employment and work placements. Your young person needs to be aged 16 or over, and either already in paid work or “about to start or return to paid work in the next 12 weeks.” An apprenticeship counts as paid work from day one, so this applies from the moment the offer is confirmed.
Supported internships work differently, because they’re unpaid by design. The scheme makes a specific exception for them: young people on a DfE supported internship “can apply for Access to Work support for the time of their work placement only.”
If a supported internship is the route on the table rather than an apprenticeship, our guide to how supported internships work covers the whole programme. That includes the EHCP side that Access to Work doesn’t touch.
| Status | Criterion |
|---|---|
| Note | Aged 16 or over |
| Note | Living and working in England, Scotland or Wales A different scheme runs in Northern Ireland |
| Note | In a paid apprenticeship, or about to start or return to paid work within 12 weeks |
| Note | On a DfE supported internship The placement itself is unpaid, but Access to Work still applies |
| Check | Doing unpaid voluntary work Access to Work doesn’t cover voluntary work outside the supported internship programme |
Traineeships and other DfE-run unpaid programmes vary in how they’re treated, so it’s worth checking the specific rules with your training provider before assuming a placement is covered.
How do you apply, and when?
You apply online or by phone. gov.uk asks for contact details, the workplace address, and how the condition affects the work. You’ll also need to say what support you think is needed, plus a workplace contact who can confirm your young person actually works there.
Timing matters more than the form itself. Apply too late, and the job coach or equipment might not be ready on day one.
- Before a paid apprenticeship or job starts
- 12 weeks
- Before a supported internship placement starts
- 6 months
For a paid apprenticeship, your young person, or you, helping them, can apply as soon as the offer is confirmed, up to 12 weeks before the start date. For a supported internship, the college or training provider usually leads the application, and DWP’s own staff guidance allows it up to 6 months ahead.
Ask the training provider, SENCO or job coach service who’s actually submitting the application, and when. Colleges that run supported internships every year usually know the process cold, so let them lead and just make sure it’s actually been done.
What happens to job coach support over time?
Job coaching isn’t meant to last forever. The whole point is that support fades as your young person gets confident in the role, and that can feel alarming the first time someone explains it to you.
For supported internships specifically, DWP’s staff guidance sets a standard structure: up to 26 weeks of job coach funding. Tapering starts within the first 13 weeks if your young person is on one placement for the academic year.
If your young person genuinely needs longer, an extension beyond 26 weeks is possible up to an absolute maximum of 39 weeks, but it needs fresh evidence of continued need. Ask the job coach provider to document exactly what’s still required, and why, well before the 26-week point arrives.
What happens if the placement changes, or the answer is no?
Plans shift. Your young person might move from a supported internship into an apprenticeship with the same employer, which happens often enough that it’s worth planning for.
That move changes more than the job title. Because the employment relationship itself changes, from an unpaid internship to a paid apprenticeship, a fresh Access to Work application is needed. The old award doesn’t carry over automatically.
It also changes something you might not expect: Child Benefit. A supported internship is unpaid and counts as education, so Child Benefit can continue.
A paid apprenticeship doesn’t count as education for Child Benefit purposes, so payments stop the day it starts. If your young person is approaching 16 or moving between these routes, our guide to Child Benefit at 16 plus walks through exactly what triggers the change.
If DWP refuses an application, or the award feels too small for what your young person actually needs, don’t expect a tribunal-style appeal.
There’s no formal right of appeal against an Access to Work decision. Everybody is entitled to one reconsideration of an award by a different case manager. Ask for that first, with any extra evidence of need. If it still doesn’t resolve things, a formal complaint to DWP is the next step.
One more date worth pinning to the fridge: once support costs are actually incurred, you have 9 months to claim for them. Keep receipts and invoices as you go rather than trying to reconstruct them later.
Common misconceptions
“My employer’s adjustments should cover this.” They’re separate. The employer’s reasonable adjustment duty and Access to Work funding sit side by side, not instead of each other. If a request gets refused because “we’ve already made reasonable adjustments”, that’s worth challenging, since Access to Work exists precisely for support beyond that duty.
“Degree apprentices get the same student finance as university students.” They don’t. Student Finance England confirms that students on a degree apprenticeship course can’t get funding from Student Finance England, which rules out Disabled Students’ Allowance entirely. For a degree apprentice, Access to Work and the training provider’s own learning support funding are what’s actually available, not that route.
“It’s only for people already employed.” Not quite. The 12-week window means your young person can apply before the apprenticeship has even started, as soon as the offer is confirmed. Waiting until the first day just delays support that should be ready from the start.
What to do next
- Talk to the employer and training provider now, even before the start date is fixed. Ask who’s applying for Access to Work, and when.
- Describe support needs specifically. Instead of “needs help concentrating”, write what actually happens: needs written task lists because verbal-only instructions aren’t retained after a few minutes, for example.
- Keep every email. If adjustments or job coach hours get discussed in a meeting, follow up in writing the same day.
- Don’t wait for a diagnosis to start the conversation. Access to Work asks how a condition affects work, not for a formal diagnostic label.
Getting help
Your local SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service) gives free, impartial advice on the EHCP side of a supported internship, alongside the Access to Work application itself.
ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) offers a free helpline (0300 123 1100) if an employer refuses reasonable adjustments or a workplace dispute comes up during the apprenticeship.
Disability Rights UK runs the Disabled Apprentice Network, connecting current and former disabled apprentices for practical, peer-level advice about specific employers and training providers.
Mencap publishes an apprenticeship factsheet aimed at people with a learning disability, alongside broader employment advice and support.