An independent review of the challenges faced by disabled entrepreneurs has found inaccessible support services, poor access to finance and a “burden of proof of disability” among the problems that need to be tackled.
Provisional findings of the government-backed Lilac review identified “common struggles to be overcome to make entrepreneurship more accessible”.
These include navigating unnecessarily complex processes to access business support, finance and welfare, the review team said. The review estimated that “levelling up entrepreneurial opportunity” for disabled founders could unlock an extra £230 billion in UK business turnover.
It also recommended scrapping annual benefit reassessments for lifelong conditions, “to reduce the administrative cost to government and the pressure on entrepreneurs to repeatedly justify their need for support”. Access to disability support should
