The Access to Work Programme (known as Access to Work) is intended to help disabled people get or keep jobs or become self-employed by meeting part or all of the costs of the additional support that some disabled people require in order to work effectively. However, the proportion of the total costs covered by Access to Work varies substantially in different employment situations:

• if you need communication support (e.g. a lipspeaker or notetaker) at a job interview, the whole cost will be paid for;
• if you are starting a job with a new employer, or a new job with your present employer, you will receive a grant to cover all the approved costs of technical aids, communication support (such as lipspeakers or notetakers) and any deaf awareness training for your colleagues provided that you apply within the first six weeks of starting the job;
• if you have become self-employed you will receive a grant to cover all the approved costs of any of these forms of support no matter how long you have been self-employed; but
• if you need technical aids to enable you to keep your existing job with your present employer there is a threshold of £300 above which 80% of approved costs will be paid for through Access to Work up to approved costs of £10,000 over a three year period. All approved costs over £10,000 will be paid for through Access to Work.

Your present employer must agree to pay for the first £300 and 20% of the remainder of the approved costs up to £10,000. This means in effect that your present employer will have to pay most, if not all, of the cost of a technical communication aid such as an amplified telephone, textphone or radio microphone before qualifying for any contribution from Access to Work.

However, grants of any kind from Access to Work relate only to approved costs. Access to Work is run by the Employment Service. Initial enquiries can be made through Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) at local Jobcentres; but the Employment Service is setting up Access to Work Business Centres (AtW Business Centres), where applications can be made direct by telephone or email.

The application process involves the following stages.

Completing the Access to Work application

The first step is to contact your local Disability Employment Adviser or an Adviser at the nearest AtW Business Centre. You will be asked to explain your employment situation and the kind of support you want and why and to fill in an application form. You and, where appropriate, your employer must complete the form and send it back to the Adviser at the AtW Business Centre.

The AtW Adviser's appraisal of the support you need

Once your application form has been examined and the AtW Adviser has confirmed that you appear to be eligible for support from Access to Work, the AtW Adviser may arrange to see you and your employer at your place of work to make a full appraisal of the support needed. This appraisal should involve a detailed examination of the requirements of your job, the effects of your deafness on how you do your job and the various types of support which might be helpful.

The AtW Adviser may ask for technical advice from a specialist assessor as part of this appraisal. Make sure that you explain clearly to the AtW Adviser and any specialist assessor what support you need, and remember that if you are working closely with other hearing staff, this support can include deaf awareness training for them.

The AtW Adviser's Report

The next step is for the AtW Adviser to produce a report with recommendations on the support for which financial assistance will be provided under Access to Work. Although the AtW Adviser sets out to reach an agreed solution for the support you need, he/she may recommend something different from the support which you or your employer thought was necessary. If you want to challenge any of the AtW Adviser's recommendations, you or your employer should write to the AtW Business Centre Manager to make your case.

If the AtW Adviser has recommended a different technical aid from the one you wanted you may find it helpful to get a second opinion from the RNID's Sound Advantage Customer Service Team, who can give you chapter and verse on a wide range of technical aids for deaf people. (See Organisations for other technical aids). Sometimes, however, the AtW Adviser's report may recommend the trial of a particular aid for a limited period to see if is effective. If it is not effective, another aid may have to be tested before agreement can be reached on which aid should be purchased.

Deciding the amount of financial support to be offered

Assuming that agreement can be reached on the type of support to be covered by Access to Work, this information may be passed to other members of the Access to Work Business Centre team, who will work out the costs and the amount of financial support to be offered by Access to Work. If the support is needed to help you keep your job with your present employer, this is the point at which your employer will be asked to pay the first £300 of the costs and 20% of any further costs up to £10,000. There will be no financial contribution from Access to Work unless the employer (or someone else) agrees to pay these costs.

Providing the support

Once agreement is reached on the funding, the support can be provided. It will be for your employer to order equipment from the supplier and for you or your employer to hire support workers such as lipspeakers, notetakers and speech-to-text operators. Then you or your employer can apply for the agreed proportion of the costs to be reimbursed.

Getting temporary support prior to a decision

If the support you need is very straightforward (e.g. the provision of a textphone), Access to Work funding may be agreed quickly. However, if the support needed is more complex, the application procedure may take several weeks or even longer.

So how will you survive in the job in the meantime? If you need technical aids you may be able to borrow them from equipment already available to the nearest AtW Business Centre. Alternatively, the AtW Adviser may be able to arrange for a support worker such as a notetaker to help you until the technical aid can be purchased. You should pursue these possibilities with your AtW Adviser.

If other staff in the firm need deaf awareness training press for this to be sanctioned rapidly; but you may have to persuade your employer to pay for it up front in the hope that part or all of the cost will be reimbursed by Access to Work later.