Exclusive: Former health secretary says he wants to ‘tear up the old approach’, with under-25s to lose personal independence payments
Young people with disabilities will lose their personal independence payments and will have to apply instead to a local fund for short-term expenses and equipment, Alan Milburn’s review will recommend.
Under-25s will be barred from claiming Pip and the health element of universal credit and instead will get a new youth allowance paid at the standard rate of universal credit.
Milburn, a former health secretary, has said the current system of benefits must be entirely replaced for young people. “We need to tear up the old approach and start again for under-25s. A tweak to the benefits system just won’t do,” he said in a statement to the Guardian announcing the plans.
“We need a new system built around a young person with schools, the NHS and employers all working together to make sure that everyone has the chance to earn or learn.”
The long-awaited report on youth unemployment will promise almost half a million job and eduction opportunities within a decade, but will also advise sweeping changes to the benefits system for under-25s.
There will be a local fund for young people with disabilities to apply to for money to pay for equipment or for help with short-term expenses…
