• People waiting over a year for Access to Work support as Lib Dems call on Government to scrap “gutted” welfare legislation
• Phillipson on Kuenssberg: Govt must give families reassurance on SEND support
• Baroness Maclean: Badenoch must confirm if she agrees with aide or apologise
• McMurdock investigation: Reform must come clean about what they knew
• More than 10,000 ferries cancelled due to technical faults

People waiting over a year for Access to Work support as Lib Dems call on Government to scrap “gutted” welfare legislation

Someone waited 393 days for a decision on their Access to Work application which offers support to help people into employment a Liberal Democrat Written Parliamentary Question reveals.

It comes as the Government has announced a series of concessions on their controversial welfare bill after a major backbench rebellion. The original reforms would have cut the level of support for new PIP claimants which the Liberal Democrats said would create a two-tier system between old and new claimants, while still making it harder for disabled people to stay in work.

The cuts would have also risked thousands of carers losing their Carer’s Allowance as the person they care for needs to be eligible for PIP to receive the support. Although the Government said it will now entirely remove the PIP cuts from the bill following last minute concessions to Labour rebels, the text of the legislation voted on this week still included them.

The Written Parliamentary Questions by the party already revealed failings in giving people the support they need through the Access to Work scheme. They revealed that someone waited 393 days for a decision to be made on their application for into-employment support with the average wait for a decision being close to two months (57 days).

The WPQs also found that of the 157,000 applications for support in 2024/25 close to 20%, or 29,000, had not received a decision by the end of the financial year.

Access to Work helps people get or stay in work if they have a physical or mental health condition or disability. It can include a grant to help pay for practical support with work, support managing mental health at work or money to pay for communication support at job interviews. These delays disincentivise employers from offering jobs to disabled people as they can hire non-disabled people into roles faster.

The Lib Dems have said that the Government’s handling of this bill was “no way to make legislation let alone run a country”, with the bill rushed through and the full impact assessment of the changes not published. The party said that they would continue to oppose the bill, pointing out that this chop-and-change approach is no way to run our country or reform the welfare system.

Instead they called on the Government to scrap this flawed legislation, go back to the drawing board, and work cross-party to actually bring down the welfare bill by getting more people into work and fixing our broken health and care systems.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:

This is no way to make legislation let alone run a country. The past week has caused anxiety and confusion for all those who were at risk of being affected by these changes.

The original bill would have stripped support from disabled people and those who care for them and actually put up more barriers to work rather than bringing them down.

The Government must accept that this gutted bill is not fit for purpose, withdraw the legislation and come forward with a properly thought through proposal to reduce welfare spending without targeting those in desperate need of support.

That means speeding up Access to Work decisions, ending the crisis in our NHS so people can go back to their jobs rather than languishing in pain, and making people’s money go further, such as by introducing an energy social tariff.

Phillipson on Kuenssberg: Govt must give families reassurance on SEND support

Responding to Bridget Phillipson on Laura Kuenssberg, where she repeatedly refused to answer questions over whether she will scrap guaranteed extra support for thousands of children with special needs, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

This will be a great cause of concern for parents across the country who have children with special educational needs. No child, or their family, should face uncertainty over receiving the support they need.

Urgent action is needed to ensure that all children can access the tailored learning and support they need, and the Government must give families the reassurance they deserve.

That’s why the Liberal Democrats have called for a National Body for SEND, to ensure children with the very highest needs are properly supported, as well as speeding up plans to build more special schools, and boosting resources for mainstream schools to support those with lower needs.

Baroness Maclean: Badenoch must confirm if she agrees with aide or apologise

Commenting after the Telegraph reported that Baroness Maclean told supporters the Conservative Party has ‘done the apologies’, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

The Conservatives are completely deluded if they think the public have forgiven or forgotten the mess they’ve left behind.

This is a slap in the face for families still paying out more for their mortgage because Liz Truss tanked the economy.

Kemi Badenoch should urgently confirm whether she agrees with her own senior official on this, or if she will properly apologise to all those who suffered due to years of Conservative chaos under the government in which she served.

McMurdock investigation: Reform must come clean about what they knew

Commenting after the Sunday Times’ report, that James McMurdock is alleged to have borrowed tens of thousands of pounds under the government’s Bounce Back loans scheme during the Covid pandemic, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

Nigel Farage has serious questions to answer.

The Reform Party claim to be different to the Conservatives yet this shows they are already the same when it comes to sleaze and scandal. In the last year alone they’ve faced a new crisis almost every week continuing the Conservative’s terrible track record of chaos and incompetence.

Farage and Reform must come clean about whether they knew about this before McMurdock was selected as their candidate.

More than 10,000 ferries cancelled due to technical faults

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Jamie Greene MSP has today said the SNP are “causing chaos” for islanders after new research by his party found that more than 10,000 ferries have been cancelled due to technical faults since 2023.

A Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request found that between 1 January 2023 and 30 April 2025:

• A total of 10,809 sailings were cancelled due to technical faults with ferries.
• Ferries were cancelled (performed below schedule) on 548 days out of 851.

Mr Greene said:

These figures reveal just how much chaos the SNP are causing island communities.

Our island communities are being treated as second class citizens, lacking the basic right to access the same public services as mainland Scots.

The SNP’s failure to deliver new lifeline ferries has anchored islanders with an ageing fleet that is in constant need of repair, at constant risk of cancellation and costing millions in repair bills.

My constituents on the west coast are suffering the depressing reality of losing business, missing events and hospital appointments and, frankly, they have lost faith in the Scottish Government’s ability to fix those problems.

Scottish Liberal Democrats would get the basics right and stand up for island communities. That starts by making sure islanders have access to the ferries they need and rebuilding our country’s rural and island economic reputation, which has been sorely undermined by the SNP.”