Review to recommend faster disability benefits for young people with severe needs
A government-commissioned review led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn is expected to recommend guaranteed, rapid access to disability benefits for 16- to 24-year-olds with severe lifelong conditions and little prospect of paid work. Disability charity Sense supports the principle but wants safeguards and employment help for those able to work.
Young people aged 16 to 24 with the most severe lifelong disabilities should receive fast-track access to benefits without repeatedly proving they cannot work, an official review is expected to recommend. The review, led by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn, is examining youth employment and is due to report in October. Its proposed guarantee would cover people with complex needs, including some with profound and multiple learning disabilities, severe neurological conditions and those eligible for NHS continuing healthcare support.
Under the current system, disabled young people and their families may face repeated assessments to obtain personal independence payment and health-related universal credit. Milburn’s review is expected to say that repeated assessments are unnecessary for people whose conditions were diagnosed at birth or in early childhood and mean they cannot work. Milburn said he had heard accounts of young people waiting and fighting for support.
He argued that people with conditions so severe that they could never work should receive faster assistance rather than repeatedly having to establish their eligibility. The proposal follows an interim report from the separate government-commissioned Timms review, which said many claimants regarded the personal independence payment assessment process as degrading and deeply distressing. Disability charity Sense welcomed the principle of a fast-track guarantee.
Its director of influencing, Harriet Edwards, said the details would be important, including eligibility, the scope of exemptions and how the arrangements would operate across different benefits. Sense also warned against assuming that every young disabled person could not work. Edwards said those who wanted and were able to work should receive specialist employment support and genuine opportunities alongside financial protection.
The review is part of the government’s response to a youth employment crisis in which nearly one million 16- to 24-year-olds are classified as not in employment, education or training.
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