PIP and the health element of universal credit (UC) will be abolished for 18-24 year olds, including existing claimants, if the recommendations of the Milburn review are accepted by the government. The details were given in an interview with Alan Milburn published in the Times today, with the full report expected to be released on Tuesday 17 November.
New benefits
According to the Times, claimants under 25 will get a new benefit called the “youth allowance”, paying the same amount as the standard rate of UC.
Disabled young people may also be eligible for a new “additional costs allowance” which is intended to cover the extra costs relating to their condition. It would be non means-tested and would be payable to people in and out of work, but is likely to be available to fewer claimants than PIP is currently.
Those with the most severe disabilities who are not able to work would be eligible for a new benefit which will be paid at a higher rate than current disability benefits and which will have no waiting period.
Milburn says “It will be much more targeted on the small cohort of people who from the get-go are never going to be able to participate because of the severity and complexity of their conditions.”
Support and sanctions
According to the Times, people with low or moderate anxiety, depression, ADHD or autism will be “expected and enabled” to work. Milburn says he wants to see immediate support for young people with these conditions, so that they are not left on NHS waiting lists for months or years.
At the same time, billions of pounds will be invested in work placements, job subsidies and one-to-one personal advisers to help young people find work. Milburn says “The adviser will stick with them until they have found a job or an apprenticeship or college place”.
He does not say what support will be available if the young person struggles once they are in their job or college place or what will happen if their condition deteriorates and they have to leave.
Young people who do not engage with job seeking are likely to face sanctions.
“A deal isn’t a deal unless there are potential consequences,” Milburn told the Times. “Entitlements and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin.”
Milburn was clear that the changes should apply to existing claimants as well as new ones, “because you’ve got hundreds of thousands of young people stuck in a benefits system that is trapping them in poverty, giving them no prospect of prosperity or a job,”
Substantial risk
The details leaked by Milburn raise many questions.
One major uncertainty is which young people will be deemed to have the most severe disabilities. DWP figures released in May show that 62,570 young people aged 16-24 were in the UC limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) group because there would be a substantial risk to them or someone else if they were required to prepare for work. This is a slightly larger age range than that covered by Milburn, but 44,000 were aged 20-24 which means that the majority would be affected by the proposals.
But young people in this group cannot meet the severe conditions criteria on the grounds of substantial risk and thus, if they are new claimants, do not get paid the higher rate of UC health.
If similar criteria are used to decide who gets the proposed new benefit because they are incapable of work, then tens of thousands of young people currently covered by the substantial risk exemption will face a real threat to their wellbeing. They will suddenly find themselves subject to compulsory employment support and the threat of sanctions, even though the DWP has accepted that such measures will put them at substantial risk.
When Milburn was quizzed recently by Disability News Service editor John Pring about the dangers to young people of changes to the work capability assessment, he responded with rage and obscenities. Milburn’s reaction raises the possibility that this is an issue he would prefer not to be confronted on, but it is a matter of existential importance to some young people.
Research published in 2015 found that reassessments using the work capability assessment between 2010 and 2013 were associated with an estimated 590 additional suicides in England, as well as a substantial increase in reported mental health problems.
Mental health
There are also concerns about the potential effect of reducing benefits on young people's mental health, particularly given the findings of the government-commissioned Fonagy review. The review cited a systematic review of 136 studies which found that increases in income were associated with improved mental health, while reductions in income were associated with worsening mental health.
Timms review
In addition, we know that the Milburn and Timms reviews are closely linked. The Timms review interim report, published in July 2026, states:
“We are taking account of related work, including the Milburn Review, which raises similar questions about how systems can better support participation and address the barriers people face.”
It is hard to imagine that on their twenty fifth birthday, young people who were locked out of the disability benefits system would suddenly become eligible for higher and different payments. What seems more likely is that PIP, or whatever Timms might propose to replace it with, will mirror at least some of the proposals in the Milburn report.
It also seems likely that a proposal in Labour’s March 2025 Pathways to Work Green Paper, that DLA would be payable until young people reach 18 will be put in place, to prevent PIP being available to 16 and 17 year olds but not to 18 to 24 year olds.
Softening up
Milburn’s interview with the Times is the beginning of a softening-up process before the full report is released on Tuesday. It is also an opportunity for disabled claimants to begin preparing their responses for MPs, members of the House of Lords, All Party Parliamentary Groups, disability organisations and the media.
Because, apart from the injustice to young disabled people, it is clear that if the response to these proposals is muted, it will make it easier for similar changes to be suggested by Timms..
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