Access to Work
What can Access to Work pay for?
For ADHD, Access to Work can fund specialist workplace coaching, a job coach or accountability support, support-worker and admin PA hours, speech-to-text and task-management software, meeting transcription and note-taking support, read-aloud tools, noise-cancelling equipment, written-communication tools, travel support including an accompanying support worker and taxis, ergonomic equipment, and a separate Mental Health Support Service, up to £69,260 a year in 2026/27. The winning structure for every ask is the same: name the work barrier, then the support that removes it.
Information only, not benefits advice. Award decisions are the DWP's, made case by case after an assessment. Support categories from gov.uk, Access to Work; the £69,260 cap for 2026/27 from the customer factsheet; the Mental Health Support Service 9-month duration from delivery partner Able Futures. All checked 19 July 2026.
The ADHD ask list: support, barrier, framing
1. Specialist ADHD workplace coaching (strategy coaching)
The barrier it removes: Executive function: organising workload, prioritising competing demands, task switching, time blindness, starting tasks (ADHD paralysis).
How to frame it: Usually the highest-value award. Ask for a block of sessions with a coach experienced in ADHD specifically, not generic workplace coaching. If your symptoms fluctuate, say so: fluctuation is the case for ongoing or renewable support rather than a one-off.
2. Job coach / accountability support (regular check-ins)
The barrier it removes: Knowing exactly what needs doing but being unable to start; attention scattering across projects; needing external structure to keep momentum.
How to frame it: Distinct from strategy coaching: this is ongoing, practical accountability, like a weekly session to set priorities. Name it separately so it is scoped separately.
3. Support worker / administrative PA (hours per week)
The barrier it removes: Invoicing, paperwork, follow-up emails, scheduling and diary management taking disproportionate effort or slipping for weeks.
How to frame it: Cost it as hours per week and be realistic. You can also request extra hours for help completing the Access to Work claim paperwork itself, which is allowed and worth doing if forms are exactly what you struggle with.
4. Speech-to-text / dictation software
The barrier it removes: Explaining things verbally is far easier than writing; hours lost turning thoughts into written work.
How to frame it: Frame as reducing the effort cost of producing written output, not as a nice-to-have gadget.
5. Task-management and AI productivity software
The barrier it removes: Too many ideas and no way to pick a priority; email avoidance; excessive rewriting of messages.
How to frame it: Ask for the category and name examples. Frame as reducing decision overload and email paralysis in your actual role.
6. Meeting transcription software, plus a note-taker for key meetings
The barrier it removes: Forgetting what was agreed unless it is written down; struggling to process fast verbal information; video meetings consuming disproportionate effort.
How to frame it: Two asks: automatic transcription for everyday meetings, and human note-taking support for high-stakes ones so you can participate instead of scrambling to record.
7. Text-to-speech / read-aloud and document support
The barrier it removes: Long documents, contracts and reports are hard to absorb; rereading several times and still worrying something was missed.
How to frame it: Read-aloud software, and optionally support-worker hours to break dense documents into manageable sections.
8. Noise-cancelling headphones or ear defenders
The barrier it removes: Noise sensitivity; background conversation and busy environments causing overload and lost focus.
How to frame it: If you already self-fund earplugs or similar, say so: it is evidence the need is real and current, not speculative.
9. Written-communication support tools
The barrier it removes: Delaying replies, rewriting messages repeatedly, avoiding written communication because of the anxiety cost.
How to frame it: Grammar, clarity and drafting tools, framed around the time and anxiety cost of written communication in your role.
10. Travel support: a support worker for unfamiliar journeys, and taxi funding
The barrier it removes: Severe anxiety around unfamiliar journeys, route changes and crowded transport; avoiding work travel without accompaniment.
How to frame it: Two parts: someone to accompany you on unfamiliar work journeys, and taxi funding where public transport is not workable (Access to Work funds the difference over what the standard journey would cost). Keep it tied to work journeys.
11. Mental Health Support Service referral
The barrier it removes: Long-term anxiety, low mood or repeated burnout affecting your ability to stay in work.
How to frame it: A separate, confidential 9-month service delivered by external providers, and it does not come out of your grant. Ask for the referral explicitly. Full detail on our Mental Health Support Service page.
12. Ergonomic workspace equipment
The barrier it removes: Long screen-based days with hyperfocus; the physical toll of cumulative overwork.
How to frame it: Sit-stand desk, ergonomic chair, second monitor, ergonomic peripherals. Note: a standard laptop is usually refused as "standard equipment for the job"; ask for the assistive software and peripherals instead.
Want this tailored to your barriers? The ask-list generator builds your personal list from the difficulties you tick, ready to use in the application and assessment call.
The one rule that keeps asks fundable
Access to Work funds work barriers. Difficulties at home, with medication logistics, or in your personal life can be powerful evidence of how much you are managing, but never let a funding ask rest on them or it will be redirected. Home-life needs belong in a PIP claim, and the two schemes run happily in parallel.
Related
- How much is the grant and how is it paid?
- How to apply, step by step
- The Mental Health Support Service
- Get ADHD coaching funded step by step and how to vet the coach
- Things that help with ADHD (self-funded options while you wait)
Frequently asked questions
Can Access to Work pay for ADHD coaching?
Yes. Specialist workplace coaching is one of the most common ADHD awards, typically a block of sessions with an ADHD-experienced coach, renewable where the need continues. Tie the ask to concrete workplace barriers: prioritising, task switching, time estimation, starting tasks.
Can it pay for a support worker or PA?
Yes, support workers are a core category, from admin PA hours to note-takers and travel companions, and they are 100% funded with no employer contribution. Cost the ask as hours per week tied to specific tasks that slip without support.
Will it buy me a laptop?
Usually not. Equipment that is standard for the job, like an ordinary laptop, is normally refused. What succeeds is the assistive layer: speech-to-text, transcription and organisation software, plus ergonomic peripherals and monitors, framed around the specific barrier each one removes.
Does the support have to be about my ADHD specifically?
It has to be about barriers at work caused by your condition or disability, and you can include everything you live with in one application: ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, physical conditions. Keep every ask anchored to a work barrier; needs that are purely about home life belong in a PIP claim instead.
Is there a limit on the total?
Yes, the cap is £69,260 per year in 2026/27, which is far above what a typical ADHD support package costs. Do not trim your asks to seem modest: list everything that removes a genuine work barrier and let the assessor scope it.
Editor, ADHD Helper
Adam leads ADHD Helper's editorial coverage of adult ADHD, and he writes it from lived experience: Adam has ADHD himself, diagnosed as an adult, and has been through the assessment routes and the daily workarounds this site covers. He is the founder and managing director of Muswell Rose and researches the plain-English explainers on getting an ADHD assessment through NHS Right to Choose or privately, and on the products and tools people use to manage ADHD, drawing on guidance from the NHS, NICE and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is clear that the site is information, not medical advice, and that diagnosis is for a registered clinician.
Last reviewed: 19 July 2026