Milburn benefit cuts will push young disabled people further from work, JRF warns

Plans to strip young disabled people of key benefits risk undermining the government’s own drive to get them into work, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has warned.

Former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn is expected to recommend that under-25s can no longer claim the health element of universal credit (UC) or personal independence payment (Pip). His review of young people and work is due to be published on Tuesday.

JRF said the proposal, briefed to the press today, would weaken the safety net for hundreds of thousands of young people with a disability or health condition. Many of those on UC would be left on a basic rate of support of around £80 a week.

The cut would land on top of one already made. The UC health element for new claimants was cut to £50 a week (£217 a month) from April this year.

Pip is worth between around £30 and £200 a week. Many young people receive both payments, so JRF calculates that some stand to lose up to £250 a week.

Iain Porter, senior policy adviser at JRF, said: “Cutting someone’s income when they’re already struggling to afford food or the bus to college makes it harder for them to stay in education or find work. The government can and should invest in supporting people back into employment. Young disabled people shouldn’t have to trade financial security for better employment support. They need both.”

The charity said disabled young people already face disproportionate hardship. Pushing them further into poverty would make it harder for them to find jobs – “the very thing that this review is meant to solve”.

It also pointed to the record of previous cuts to disability benefits, which it said increased hardship and worsened health with no improvement in employment outcomes.

What Milburn is expected to propose

According to reports, under-25s would instead receive an allowance paid at the basic UC rate. Some could qualify for a new “additional cost allowance” to cover day-to-day costs linked to their condition. A higher-rate benefit would be kept for the most severely disabled young people who cannot work.

Young people who do not engage with new employment support could lose part of their allowance. Milburn is also expected to call for billions of pounds of investment in work placements, wage subsidies and one-to-one advisers.

Milburn reportedly told The Times that the changes would not be “pain-free” and would affect existing as well as new claimants. Around 430,000 of the roughly four million people claiming Pip in England and Wales are aged 16 to 24.

The proposals go further than the Starmer government’s Pathways to Work green paper, which floated delaying access to the UC health element until 22. Prime minister Andy Burnham is expected to back Milburn’s recommendations.

That sets up a fresh clash with Labour backbenchers, who forced Keir Starmer into a U-turn on Pip cuts last year. Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think you get a disabled young person into work by taking away the money that helps them get into work.”

A government spokesperson said: “We will always ensure there is a safety net for the most vulnerable and those who are unable to work.”

JRF said it would examine the full recommendations when the report is published.