Walk into your Access to Work assessment ready.
Your needs assessment decides your award, and you get one reconsideration if it goes wrong. There is no appeal after that. The version of you that turns up matters.
The Assessment-Ready Pack is a one-page checklist built from the DWP's own provider guidance and staff guide. Print it, fill it in, keep it by the phone.
What's in the pack
What to gather before anyone calls
NI number, workplace details, a written impact description, receipts. No diagnosis required — and the pack explains why.
Barrier examples the assessor can fund
The task + situation + consequence formula, with space to write your five. Vague answers shrink awards; specific ones shape them.
Your quotes, before the assessment
The three-quote rule for support over £500, and how arriving with named providers keeps your preferred coach on the table.
The money facts nobody explains
Cost-share thresholds by employer size, what is 100% funded, who owns the equipment, and how payment actually flows.
Adjustments to the assessment itself
Questions in advance, format preference, extra time, an interpreter. Providers must meet reasonable requests at their own cost.
The deadline map
Backdating to your application date, the 9-month claim window, the 28-day challenge window, and the one-reconsideration rule.
Why this exists
Once an assessment provider receives your referral, they must arrange your appointment within 2 working days and offer at least 5 slots. After months of waiting, everything happens in about 48 hours, and the applicants who arrive prepared shape their award. The rest get defaulted.
I coach neurodivergent founders and professionals through exactly this process, and I missed my own provider call while I was on holiday. This pack is everything I wish had been by the phone. Read more in the guides on the phone call, the assessment and choosing your own provider.