Access to Work: online claiming stops after 9-12 months, anyone else?

Hi all,

I'm self-employed and have an Access to Work grant that includes a three-year ChatGPT subscription (used as a work aid for my disability). For the first few months I claimed back the monthly cost online with no fuss.

I've now been told that after nine months you can't claim online any more. You have to fill in a paper form (DP224JP, the Special Aids and Equipment claim form), attach the original invoices and post the lot to Wolverhampton. There's no email option, and I can't even download the form. The adviser has to email it to me to print. When I asked why, the answer was basically "that's the policy".

The awkward bit is that the award runs for three years but online claiming only works for nine months of it. I don't own a printer, so this means paying to print, finding a post office and losing a chunk of a working day. The adviser suggested saving up seven months of claims and sending them in one go, which means paying out of my own pocket for months first. I've tried to make a formal complaint about the process, though the adviser was lovely, she mentioned that complaints re policy cannot be handled. She did check this with both managers.

Has anyone else run into this?

• Were you able to keep claiming online, or were you moved to post too?
• Has anyone got Access to Work to accept email claims, or made it a reasonable adjustment?
• Any tips for keeping on top of the nine-month claim limit with postal claims?
• Has a complaint about the process ever got anywhere?

Thanks, any experiences welcome.