Access to Work Collective deliver 16,000 signatures to Downing Street
Earlier this year, the Access to Work Collective delivered a petition signed by upwards of 16,000 people to Downing Street calling for the scheme to be protected. At the time, government ministers publicly denied that cuts were being made to the scheme – despite the data collected by the Access to Work Collective suggesting otherwise.
This week, the Disability News Service revealed that a “stealth cut” had, in fact, been applied to the scheme which would result in more disabled people being priced out of the workplace: unable to access the support workers, interpreters, and equipment that support them to work.
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Thousands of Access to Work scheme users have become a part of the Collective, lending their experience to its research and advocacy work, and helping to make the case for the scheme. Its co-founders, Shani Dhanda and Jacqueline Winstanley, have been working alongside disability organisations to resist efforts to restrict access to the scheme, and demonstrate the incredible return on investment it creates for the government.
Throughout their time on our Accelerator programme, the Access to Work Collective has worked to built a broad coalition of parliamentarians to defend the scheme, been instrumental to the establishment of the new All-Party Parliamentary Group for Good Work for Disabled People, and engaged thousands of supporters using viral video techniques learned in Breakthrough masterclasses.