- Businesses, charities and organisations to bid for up to £60 million to fund innovative ideas to support disabled people move closer and into work.
- Expert panel – including Paralympian Tanni Grey Thompson – to help design the fund and shortlist best ideas
- Comes as part of £3.5 billion employment support package to knock down barriers to opportunity for disabled people and those with health conditions.
The Government’s Pathways to Work Innovation Fund is a ‘call to action’ for the private, voluntary and public sectors to come forward with the most ambitious, creative ideas to help disabled people and those with health conditions get into and on at work.
The Fund will open for bids in September, with organisations across the UK invited to compete for funding to test genuinely new approaches to employment support.
With 2.8 million people currently out of work due to ill-health, and the Keep Britain Working review estimating economic inactivity caused by health conditions costs the UK economy £212 billion a year, the Government is looking to work alongside business, charities, tech innovators and disabled people themselves to tackle the issue and improve employment support.
The Fund forms part of the Government’s commitment to break down barriers to opportunity for disabled people backed by £3.5 billion in tailored employment support. This includes intensive, one-to-one job help from specialist advisers in their own communities, meeting people where they are, alongside a joined-up work and health offer.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said
We inherited a welfare system which has locked too many disabled people and those with health conditions out of work.
We’re determined to ensure no talent is left behind, and that people are given the support they need. Through our £3.5 billion Pathways to Work employment support offer, we’ve seen that personalised support can be life-changing.
Now we’re calling on business, disabled people and charities to work with us, and bring forward their ideas to transform employment support.
An expert panel – including Paralympian Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson – will help shape the fund’s design and advise on which bids should be funded, ensuring the voices and experience of disabled people are placed at the very heart of the process.
It comes as the Department is embracing innovation by using technologies including AI and machine learning to deliver more efficient services, modernise systems and support more people into work, including a new tool to help people into jobs.
Paralympian and Member of House of Lords, Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, said
I am delighted to be joining this expert panel at such an important moment. Finding and sustaining work matters enormously – not just for individual wellbeing and independence, but for society as a whole.
We know that with the right support, disabled people can and do thrive in the workplace.
The world is changing rapidly, and the systems that support disabled people must keep pace with that change. This Fund is a real opportunity to back the bold, creative ideas that can make that happen.
To mark the launch, the Work and Pensions Secretary will today visit TechUK, the UK’s leading technology trade association, where he will meet with their members at a tech and innovation showcase to see cutting-edge innovation in action and discuss how technology can help transform people’s working lives.
The new approach comes alongside wider Government action to help people into work and fulfil their full potential, as part of reforms to the broken welfare system this government inherited, including
- Rebalancing Universal Credit to remove the perverse incentives that push people away from work.
- Introducing a Right to Try Work Guarantee, giving everyone who can work the chance to do so without fear of losing their benefits.
- Investing £3.5 billion in tailored employment support for sick or disabled people.
- Increasing face-to-face assessments for health benefits.
- Tackling fraud and error in the benefits system, saving £14.6 billion over this Parliament
- Alan Milburn is due to bring his final recommendations later this year on tackling the barriers young people face, and the Timms review is looking at how to make sure PIP is fit and fair for the future.
Antony Walker, Deputy CEO of TechUK, said
The announcement that the Department for Work and Pensions is investing into an Innovation Fund is very welcome. Thousands of disabled people and those with health conditions are locked out of the workforce, not for lack of talent, but because of barriers that persist across many careers.
Our members are already developing and deploying innovative technologies that are breaking down those barriers, helping people to find work, stay in work and thrive in their careers.
This investment has the potential to build on that success, accelerating the adoption of proven solutions and supporting even more disabled people to access rewarding employment while helping employers tap into a wider pool of talent.
Additional Information
- The Pathways to Work Innovation Fund will open for bids in September 2026. Full details on how to apply will be published in due course.
- The Fund is open to public, private and voluntary sector organisations across the UK.
Full List of Expert Panel Members
- Giles Barker – Workplace Disability Lead, Channel 4
- Angela Matthews – Director of Public Policy and Research, Business Disability Forum
- Mark Hodgkinson – Chair, The Valuable 500 Foundation
- Mark Esho – Founder, Easy Internet Services and Easy Internet Solutions
- Andrew Greenway – Founder, Public Digital
- Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive Officer, Mencap
– Nabila Gardner – Member of the DWP Independent Disability Advisory Panel and Director and Health and Wellbeing Coach at Ways for Wellbeing UK CIC - Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson – Paralympian and Member of House of Lords.