UK review to recommend fast-track disability benefits for severely disabled young people
An official UK review of youth employment led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn will recommend guaranteed, fast-track disability benefits for 16- to 24-year-olds with the most severe, lifelong conditions. The report is expected in October.
A government-commissioned review of youth employment in the UK, led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn, will recommend that young people aged 16 to 24 with the most severe and lifelong disabilities be guaranteed swift, unconditional access to disability benefits, rather than repeatedly having to prove they cannot work.
Currently, many disabled young people and their families face lengthy, adversarial assessments to qualify for personal independence payment (Pip) and health-related universal credit. The proposed guarantee could cover those with profound and multiple learning disabilities, severe neurological conditions, and those needing NHS continuing healthcare support.
The review, due in October, will state there is no justification for repeated assessments of this group, since their conditions are typically diagnosed at birth or in early childhood and do not change.
Milburn told the Guardian he had heard many accounts of severely disabled young people left waiting and fighting for support they are entitled to, often subjected to dehumanising, tick-box assessments designed to catch people out rather than help them.
The disability charity Sense welcomed the principle behind the fast-track guarantee but cautioned that young disabled people who are able and willing to work should not be written off, and stressed the importance of implementation details, including eligibility criteria and consistency across different benefit schemes.
A mother from the West Midlands described the process of securing benefits for her 25-year-old son with complex disabilities as a bureaucratic nightmare involving constant battles and rejections.
Milburn was commissioned by the government to address a growing youth jobs crisis, with nearly a million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK classified as not in employment, education or training. His interim report in June had already indicated that young people with severe, lifelong conditions should be protected by the benefits system, while suggesting that those with less severe conditions who could work might see benefit reductions.
