Blind NHS psychologist fears losing job after DWP slashed her Access to Work support: ‘I was sobbing’

A blind NHS psychologist fears she could lose her job after government support was slashed without warning.

Danielle Verity has worked as a clinical psychologist in the NHS for more than seven years. She has a severe visual impairment but “thrives” in her role thanks to Access to Work (AtW) support from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

“As a child, when I had vision, I wanted to be a hairdresser,” Verity tells Big Issue. “But no one wants a blind person cutting their hair!

“I’m very privileged to say that my job in the NHS is fantastic. It’s very varied.”

Access to Work is the government’s flagship scheme designed to help disabled people stay in employment. Grants cover costs beyond reasonable workplace adjustments, including specialist equipment, support workers, interpreters and travel. Around 75,000 people currently receive support through the scheme.

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For several years, Verity received funding for 37.5 hours of weekly support – enough to employ a support worker who typed up her notes and handled other administrative tasks that are difficult for someone who is non-sighted. With this assistance, she was able to manage the same number of patients as her sighted colleagues.

“I had to – otherwise, why would they recruit me over somebody else?” she tells Big Issue. “I have to be seen to be delivering the same outcomes as everybody else. I was able to keep up at that rate because of the [AtW] support.”

But at her most recent renewal, the arrangement changed abruptly: her support was cut by more than 40% to 24 hours a week.

“I was just sobbing to my colleague like, ‘What am I going to do?’” she recalls.

Verity’s experience is far from isolated. Since early 2024, disabled people, advocates and support providers have reported significant reductions to awards at the AtW renewal stage. Big Issue has reported on this here, here and here.

Outright rejections have also risen sharply. Between April and October last year, 27,297 applications were not approved, parliamentary questions revealed last month – around one in three of all applications. By contrast, 24% of applications were rejected in 2023-24.

Set against earlier proposals to cut personal independence payment (PIP) – abandoned after a major backbench revolt last year – disability advocates have described the “stealth cuts” as an exercise in cost reduction.

But it could backfire. According to the charity Scope, every £1 invested in Access to Work delivers a £1.88 saving to the Treasury. If disabled people are pushed out of employment by the removal of this support, demand on the NHS and social care services is likely to rise.

Having her support cut has been “incredibly stressful”, Verity said – particularly given how limited routes to appeal are.

She initially appealed directly to Access to Work but was unsuccessful. Verity then sought help from her local MP, who asked the DWP to review the decision again, but the outcome remained the same.

It was only after she contacted the Royal National Institute of Blind People that an error in the award calculation was identified – one that had been missed during the appeal process.

“You’re telling me that they’ve done their due diligence on that process and run an appeal with my documents and they couldn’t see that?” Verity says. “That is abysmal.”

After the recalculation, Verity’s support was increased to 28 hours. But she remains concerned about managing her caseload safely.

“I see adults who have a diagnosed condition of non-epileptic attack disorder,” Verity explains. “It means that they have an experience that can look incredibly similar to an epileptic attack. But it’s not due to physical condition, it’s a psychological condition.”

“This is a mental health condition that presents in a very physical way, which means that you get a high percentage of individuals with really complex mental health difficulties. You need to act in response to those things. So it could be that they are harming themselves, or they’re wanting to harm themselves more fatally. I’m not suggesting that happens all the time, but that’s the nature of the work. Finding that information and making sure that that is right – that’s my job. I want to keep people as safe as possible. To question and doubt myself under those circumstances is incredibly difficult.”

The NHS’ mental health services are already stretched. There are just under 6,000 clinical psychologists working in the NHS, and even before the healthcare system was pushed to the brink by Covid-19, staffing levels were fragile. In a 2019 survey, 57% of clinical psychologists reported staff shortages in their service.

Any policy that risks forcing experienced clinicians out of work, Verity says, compounds those pressures. After her support was cut, she was “sobbing” to a colleague, who contacted her manager and arranged for her clinic to be reduced – “for now.”

“That’s ultimately going to cost them [the NHS],” she says. “They need bums on seats.”

A DWP spokesperson said that Access to Work “supports thousands of sick or disabled people to start or stay in work, but the scheme we inherited is failing employees and employers.

“That’s why we’re working with disabled people and their organisations to improve it – ensuring people have the support, skills, and opportunities to move into good, secure jobs as part of our Plan for Change.”

An official change to Access to Work guidance is expected imminently, though ministers have refused to say what it will involve. A public consultation on the future of the scheme concluded in June. Last year, Big Issue submitted a freedom of information request to the DWP seeking internal documents relating to “reducing or reassessing Access to Work awards, particularly at the renewal stage”.

The department confirmed it holds the information but declined to release it, stating that it related to the development of government policy.

“This exemption is being used to protect the integrity of the policymaking process,” the response said.

The government has pledged to help more disabled people into work. AtW cuts compromise that, Verity adds.

“I’ve worked so hard to get this place. People are like: ‘Oh get people back into work.’ I’m all for it. But the amount of people who are blind and have reached a level of one, being in work, and two, being at a point of work where they’ve been able to jump through the hoops of whatever training or academia they need to do, is very small.”

“It’s a very small, small number.”

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