If you work in the UK and have ADHD, or a lot of the traits, Access to Work is a government grant worth knowing about. This is for you, and for managers who’ve been asked about it. I’m not an expert on the scheme, and this isn’t advice. I’m dyslexic, with a lot of ADHD traits, and I run two businesses, so both sides of it interest me. Everything below about Access to Work and ADHD comes from GOV.UK, read on 20 October, plus DWP’s own figures on waiting times.
What Access to Work is, and whether ADHD counts
Access to Work is a government scheme that can help you get or stay in work if you have a physical or mental health condition or disability. The main part is a grant towards practical support with your work, which you don’t pay back.
ADHD counts. The eligibility page lists “having ADHD or dyslexia” among the conditions that can qualify, and then says: “You do not need to be diagnosed with a condition to apply.”
I’ve never had a formal ADHD diagnosis, and the NHS says you may have to wait several months or years to access ADHD specialist services.
You also need to be 16 or over, in paid work (or starting within 12 weeks), and living and working in England, Scotland or Wales. Northern Ireland has a different system. Self-employed people need a turnover of at least £6,500 a year. Civil servants get support from their employer instead.
What Access to Work can pay for with ADHD
GOV.UK lists “specialist equipment and assistive software” first, then support workers such as a job coach. The customer factsheet adds a note taker and disability awareness training for your colleagues. So yes, you can ask for software, and for support from a person. There’s no set amount, up to a cap of £69,260 a year.
Two things are easy to miss. Access to Work won’t pay for reasonable adjustments, which are the changes your employer must legally make anyway. And the grant pays back the agreed cost, so you or your employer may pay up front and claim it back.
The NHS gives examples of reasonable adjustments for ADHD, including written instructions as well as spoken ones, and “help from another person to plan and structure your tasks”. That last one is how I got by for years. I compensated with lists, reminders and people around me who held the threads I dropped.
How to apply for Access to Work
You can apply online or on the helpline, 0800 121 7479, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. If phone calls are hard for you, you can ask for everything by email instead.
1. Write down what’s hard, in plain words
The form asks how your condition affects your work and what support you think you need. Be specific. Mine would be something like: I can build a whole dashboard in a morning and forget to reply to the email that started it.
2. Get your details together
You’ll need your workplace address and postcode, your National Insurance number if you have it, or your Unique Taxpayer Reference if you’re self-employed. If you’re employed, you name a workplace contact, who GOV.UK says won’t be contacted without your permission.
3. Talk to them
Someone from Access to Work will contact you, and may arrange for an assessor to call, video call or visit. If you already know what support you need, the factsheet says you don’t need an assessment at all.
4. Get the letter, then claim
You’ll get a letter saying how much the grant is and what it should pay for. You claim with invoices or receipts, within 9 months.
How long Access to Work takes
GOV.UK doesn’t give a timescale, so the best figures are the Department for Work and Pensions’ own answers to MPs. In February 2026, the minister, Sir Stephen Timms, said the average time from application to decision was 100.5 days between April 2025 and January 2026. In March, another answer said 66,749 applications were waiting for a decision on 23 February 2026. DWP says both figures are unpublished management information, and that it puts people starting work within four weeks, and renewals, first.
So apply early, and talk to your employer about reasonable adjustments while you wait.
If you manage someone with ADHD at work
Start with the reasonable adjustments. Those are yours to make, and you don’t need a grant to put written instructions next to spoken ones.
Access to Work covers support beyond that. The person applying names a workplace contact who can confirm they work there, and that may be you. For special equipment and adaptations, you may share the cost if the person has worked for you for more than 6 weeks when they apply.
The employer factsheet sets a threshold by company size. It’s nil for 0 to 49 employees, £500 for 50 to 249, and £1,000 for over 250. You pay costs up to the threshold and 20% of costs between the threshold and £10,000. Anything above £10,000 is normally met by Access to Work. For support workers and travel, it will consider paying up to 100%.
Where Ultrathink fits
Ultrathink has nothing to do with Access to Work. Nobody has approved or recommended it for the scheme, and I’m not suggesting the grant will pay for it.
I built it for my own brain. It’s somewhere to throw links, voice notes and files in seconds without deciding where they go. Then an AI pass fixes my spelling, writes a short summary and adds tags. When I need something back, I ask in plain English. There’s more on choosing a note-taking app for ADHD elsewhere on this blog.
Access to Work and ADHD: what I’d tell a friend
Access to Work can pay towards software, equipment and support from a person if ADHD makes parts of your job harder, and you don’t need a diagnosis to apply. It’s slow, so apply early, and ask for reasonable adjustments in the meantime.
If you think ADHD is affecting your work, the NHS says to make an appointment with a GP to find out what support is available.
And if you do apply for Access to Work for ADHD, fill the form in on a morning. My brain at 9am is electric. By 3pm it’s soup.
