Ministers Weigh Scrapping Youth Disability Benefit in Sweeping Welfare Overhaul

-
The Palace of Westminster, home of the Houses of Parliament, in London.
The Palace of Westminster in London. Ministers are drawing up sweeping changes to the welfare system that could scrap a key disability benefit for under-25s. (Photograph: Aethonatic, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 public domain)

Ministers are drawing up sweeping changes to the welfare system that could see a key disability benefit for under-25s scrapped and replaced with a multibillion-pound package of support to get young people into work.

The plans, first reported by the Guardian and followed up by The Times, are being worked up inside Whitehall as Andy Burnham's government prepares a major push to move more people on benefits back into work. At the centre of the proposals is the possible removal of the health element of universal credit for claimants under 25, worth £217 a month.

Key facts

  • Ministers are considering scrapping the universal credit health element for under-25s, worth £217 a month
  • It would be replaced with a multibillion-pound support package including subsidised jobs, back-to-work schemes and mental health support
  • Around 184,000 young people aged 16 to 24 in the UK currently receive the health element
  • Officials are also looking at a new system to replace personal independence payments (PIP), claimed by four million people
  • Legislation would be needed; a bill could be presented in the next parliamentary session next year
  • Those with the most severe and debilitating disabilities would not lose any money, according to the proposals under debate

What is on the table

A central option under consideration is removing the health element of universal credit for claimants under 25, the payment made to people whose health condition or disability limits their ability to work. The benefit has already been cut substantially: the government previously announced it would be almost halved to £217 a month for most new claimants from next April. Now ministers are examining whether it should be removed altogether for young claimants, and whether that change should apply to existing claimants as well as new ones.

The support that would replace it includes subsidised jobs for younger people, more targeted back-to-work schemes and extra mental health support. The goal, ministers say, is to help more of the roughly one million 16 to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training back into the workplace.

More broadly, officials are working up plans for a new system to replace PIP, the non-means-tested benefit that helps sick and disabled people with the extra costs of disability. After attempts to change existing PIP eligibility criteria were rejected by MPs last year, officials are now considering a fresh set of eligibility criteria and assessments. One idea being looked at is a separate regime for the under-25 age group with reduced or withdrawn entitlements. There is also discussion of whether new criteria would apply to all working-age claimants or only those below a cut-off point such as 50 or 60. In each case, those with the most severe conditions would reportedly not lose money or be reassessed.

Why now

The plans are awaiting the conclusions of two reviews. Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary, is reviewing youth employment, and Sir Stephen Timms is leading a panel examining PIP. Both are expected to report this autumn, and ministers say they will not pre-empt the findings.

But the political direction is already clear. Milburn's interim report found that for every £1 the state spends on employment support for young people, £25 is spent on benefit payments. He has argued that Britain needs a "tough love" approach, pairing greater employment support with a "duty to engage". This week Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, used his conference speech to describe changing the welfare system as a "moral crusade", saying too many young people were stuck claiming benefits for too long.

Burnham has said he wants to avoid "crude cuts" and used his own conference speech to signal an overhaul of welfare to pay for an expansion of youth jobs and training support. Total UK welfare spending has reached £333bn this year, with pensioners receiving roughly 55 per cent of the budget and young people including NEETs accounting for about 2.5 per cent. Milburn called it "shameful" that the government spends 25 times as much on benefits for young people as it does on supporting them into work.

Officials have also been studying systems in other countries. Denmark restricts access to its "disability pension" for under-40s, who instead receive help with flexible jobs and training unless they have no permanent ability to work.

What the government says

A government source said: "We will be bringing forward a comprehensive package of support and reform to tackle the scandal of a million young people not in education, employment or training. The details are yet to be decided, but we are committed to enabling work and opportunity, while always protecting those unable to work."

A DWP spokesperson said the Milburn and Timms reviews, due in the autumn, "will lay the foundation for sustainable reform, and we will not pre-empt their findings". The spokesperson added: "We are already changing the system through the youth guarantee, narrowing the gap between universal credit standard and health rates, restoring face-to-face assessments, and investing a record £3.5bn in employment support for disabled people and those with long-term conditions. We will always ensure there is a safety net for the most vulnerable and those who are unable to work."

What is still unknown

Ministers stress that no final decisions have been taken and the details of any package are yet to be decided. It is not yet clear whether existing claimants of the health element would be affected or only new ones, what the replacement support package would contain in full, or exactly what a replacement for PIP would look like. Any significant changes would require new legislation, with ministers and officials looking at a bill encompassing the PIP replacement and the under-25 changes to be presented in the next session of parliament next year.

There are also questions about the political handling. Last year's welfare rebellion by Labour MPs over PIP eligibility changes remains fresh in the memory, and the scale of the new plans could reignite concerns among backbenchers about the impact on disabled people's living standards, particularly since PIP is a non-means-tested benefit unrelated to a person's employment status.

Reaction

Charities have already sounded warnings. More than 40 of the UK's leading charities wrote to ministers earlier this year urging them not to impose tougher benefit sanctions or cuts on disabled young people, arguing it risks pushing vulnerable youngsters deeper into poverty and further from employment.

The disability charity Scope has estimated that about half of households with an under-22 receiving the universal credit health element are already in poverty, and that this could rise to more than nine in ten if the support were removed. Lucy Schonegevel, director of impact at Action for Children, said: "We are deeply concerned by reports that disability benefits for under-25s could be cut. If confirmed, that would be at odds with the prime minister's recent warning against 'crude cuts'... Serious investment in high quality, tailored employment support is vital, but employment support alone cannot overcome a lack of jobs."

The opposition, meanwhile, is pushing further. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has said she would stop under-25s signing straight on to the benefits system if her party won the next election, as part of a plan to cut £23bn from the welfare bill. Reform UK has set out plans to cut the overall welfare bill by £50bn, replacing PIP with a different cash benefit restricted to the "gravely ill and severely challenged".

What happens next

The Milburn and Timms reviews are expected this autumn. Once their findings are in, ministers will finalise the package, which would then need to go through parliament. With the Tories and Reform UK both pitching tougher welfare policies of their own, and Labour MPs still bruised from last year's rebellion, the coming months will test whether the government can turn the broad ambition of its "moral crusade" into a package that survives contact with both the disabled community and its own backbenchers.

Related

Sources

  • The Guardian (via syndication), "Key disability benefit for young people may be axed under major welfare changes", 1 Oct 2026: government source quote, £217 figure, 184,000 claimants, PIP replacement plans, Denmark comparison, charities and DWP responses, McFadden "moral crusade", £333bn spending, Milburn £25-to-£1 figure
  • The Times, "Ministers may scrap youth disability benefit for back-to-work plan", 1-2 Oct 2026: corroboration of plan, Milburn "tough love"/"duty to engage", government source quote, Timms PIP review
  • ukpulse.co.uk, "Ministers debate welfare changes including disability benefit for under-25s", 1 Oct 2026: legislation timing, possible separate under-25 PIP regime, Motability consideration

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greenland at the Center of a Transatlantic Power Struggle: Trump, Arctic Militarization, and Europe’s Strategic Dilemma

-
Image
  The Arctic has long been treated as a peripheral theater of global politics—remote, frozen, and diplomatically quiet. That perception no longer holds. Denmark’s decision to send a “substantial contribution” of troops to Greenland following renewed rhetoric from Donald Trump has pushed the island back into the center of transatlantic strategic debate. The move underscores how quickly the Arctic is becoming a zone of military signaling, political coercion, and alliance stress. Trump’s refusal to rule out seizing Greenland , combined with reports that he suggested to Norway’s prime minister that his fixation on the island was linked to being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize , may sound erratic. Strategically, however, the implications are serious. When such rhetoric is paired with threats of tariffs against opposing states, it blurs the line between economic pressure, personal grievance, and national security policy. European leaders now face a familiar but intensifying dilemm...
Read more

Space Force at 6: How America's Newest Military Branch Quietly Became Essential to Your Daily Life

-
Image
Picture this: you check your phone for directions to work, pay for coffee with your card, and get a weather alert about storms heading your way. What you might not realize is that all of these everyday moments depend on satellites protected by America's youngest military service, the U.S. Space Force . Today marks six years since President Trump signed the Space Force into existence on December 20, 2019 . Back then, many people joked about " Space Farce " and questioned whether we really needed a sixth military branch. Fast-forward to 2024, and it's clear that the 16,000 men and women known as " Guardians " have become the invisible protectors of modern American life. From your morning GPS navigation to the secure communications that keep emergency services running, Space Force quietly safeguards the technology we can't live without. As China and Russia develop new ways to attack satellites, these Guardians work around the clock to keep our space-...
Read more

The Prospect of American Strikes on Iran: Strategic Calculus, Risks, and Regional Consequences

-
Image
  The prospect of American military strikes on Iran rarely emerges in a vacuum. It is usually the product of converging pressures, internal repression, regional power plays, and the credibility of deterrence. Today’s moment fits that pattern with uncomfortable precision. As Iran reels from one of the bloodiest crackdowns in its recent history, the United States once again faces a familiar but perilous question: whether force can reshape Iranian behavior, or whether it would instead accelerate a wider confrontation across the Middle East. Even Ali Khamenei , Iran’s long-standing supreme leader, has been compelled to acknowledge the scale of the violence. Thousands have reportedly been killed during the regime’s suppression of protests, an admission that underscores the severity of the internal crisis. While the demonstrations have been temporarily crushed through fear and force, the unrest has not removed the external pressures facing Tehran. On the contrary, it has sharpened them....
Read more