Ministers may scrap youth disability benefit for under-25s in back-to-work plan

Ministers are drawing up welfare reforms that could scrap a key disability benefit for under-25s, replacing it with a multibillion-pound support package to help young people into work, the Guardian has learned.

The central option is removing the health element of universal credit for under-25s — already nearly halved to £217 a month — paired with intensive support to get into work. Officials are also examining whether the change would apply to existing claimants, not just new ones.

The extra support would include subsidised jobs for younger people, more targeted “back to work” schemes and mental health help, aimed at the roughly one million 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training.

As part of the same package, officials are looking at a new system to replace personal independence payment (PIP), claimed by four million people, after MPs rejected eligibility-criteria changes last year. One option is a separate under-25s regime with reduced or withdrawn entitlements — though the most severely disabled would not lose money — with a bill possibly presented in the next parliamentary session.

The plans await reviews by Alan Milburn on youth employment and the Timms panel on PIP. Milburn’s interim report found that for every £1 spent on employment support, £25 went on benefit payments; he has urged “tough love” — greater support in exchange for a “duty to engage”.

A government source said the details were yet to be decided but the government was “committed to enabling work and opportunity, while always protecting those unable to work”.

Sources: The Times — https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/ministers-may-scrap-youth-disability-benefit-for-back-to-work-plan-v29cw6t0h ; Guardian reporting via https://ukpulse.co.uk/news/ministers-debate-welfare-changes-including-disability-benefit-for-under-25s