Milburn Review Due Nov. 17 Expected to Move Under-25s Off Main Disability Benefits

Nearly one million young Britons are not in education, employment or training. The government's answer, due Tuesday, Nov. 17, is expected to cut what some of them receive.

Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary, has spent a year reviewing the problem for the government. The Times reported that his report will recommend moving under-25s off the main sickness and disability benefits. Milburn has said the plan will not be "pain-free."

What the review is expected to recommend

Under-25s would no longer be able to claim the health element of UK-wide Universal Credit, or Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the main disability benefit in England and Wales. Scotland has its own Adult Disability Payment.

Instead, they would get an allowance at the same basic rate as Universal Credit. Some could qualify for a new "additional cost allowance" to cover day-to-day costs linked to their conditions. Fewer people are expected to qualify for that than for PIP today.

Young people with severe disabilities who cannot work would get a new benefit at a higher rate.

The other half of the package is money. Milburn is expected to recommend billions in extra employment support, including work placements, job subsidies and one-to-one personal advisers. He has described the advisers as people who will "stick with them until they have found a job or an apprenticeship or college place."

The numbers behind it

Office for National Statistics data for April to June put the number of Neets just under one million, up 3% on the same period a year earlier. That is roughly one in eight 16 to 24 year-olds.

The same figures show 60% of young Neets were economically inactive, meaning neither working nor looking for work. That share hit its highest level since records began in January to March 2026 before easing in the spring quarter.

Milburn's interim report found that 19% of young people claiming disability or health benefits were already in work.

Milburn's case, and the cost to claimants

Milburn told the Times: "Candidly, it could mean that some people will get less financial support at the beginning of their benefit claim than under the current system." He argued the real question is whether the priority is young people's "longer-term life chances or just their immediate shorter-term finances." In his view the current system "prioritises the latter over the former."

He said Wednesday night that the changes would affect both existing and new claimants. Other reporting says it is not yet clear whether the changes would reach existing claimants or only new ones.

The exact amounts will not be clear until the government publishes implementing legislation early next year.

Pushback from disability groups and Labour's own benches

The disability charity Sense says it backs giving young disabled people more chances to work but has reservations. Harriet Edwards, its director of influencing, said: "We're deeply concerned that, if these proposals are taken forward without proper funding for specialist employment support alongside welfare changes, some young disabled people could lose out." She added that families "are deeply anxious about what these changes could mean for them."

Iain Porter, senior policy adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "Cutting someone's income when they're already struggling to afford food or the bus to college makes it harder for them to stay in education or find work." He said young disabled people "shouldn't have to trade financial security for better employment support. They need both."

Dr Simon Opher, the Labour MP for Stroud and a GP who has rebelled on welfare cuts before, said the review has the "right attitude" but he is "nervous about some of the cuts." He said "cutting benefits should be a last resort" and that as a GP he has seen young people with significant mental health problems "failed by our system."

Where the government stands

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said overhauling the benefits system will require the government to "invest up front in young people." Milburn's recommendations are likely to be backed by Burnham, and the government plans major welfare reforms in 2027.

The fight now is over the trade. Milburn wants lower benefit rates paired with serious spending on getting young people into jobs. Sense and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation say the support has to be funded and in place before anyone's income drops. The report on Nov. 17 will set out the recommendations in full, and the legislation due early next year will show who loses what.

Critical details remain unanswered: who qualifies for the additional cost allowance, and what happens to existing claimants.