Helen Whately is part of a policy debate inside Downing Street over whether Alan Milburn’s plan for under-25s should be widened to older working-age adults. The proposal would replace key disability benefits with training and support for younger claimants, but ministers are now weighing whether the same principles should apply more broadly.
The government is preparing to accept Milburn’s recommendations next week, and he is due to propose that under-25s receive training and support instead of the universal credit health element. Under the plans, young people with disabilities would lose their personal independence payment but could apply to a local fund for specific short-term expenses and equipment.
Downing Street and Alan Milburn
This week, cabinet ministers looked at whether the arguments behind the under-25 model could be applied to people over-25 as well. Ministers were also considering an intervention from the prime minister or Pat McFadden to make the case that the principles should apply to all.
That would take the plan well beyond the original younger-age group and into a much larger set of working-age adults. Ministers have said any version for over-25s would need to reflect the different circumstances of older people, many of whom have families or caring responsibilities, together with more complex health needs.
Labour and the parliamentary party
The political calculation is tighter because some government sources said the wider idea might not survive if it triggered backlash from parts of Labour. Other government sources said Milburn had already made the case that the system needed to change and that the public were behind his efforts.
Andy Burnham has repeatedly said the changes would not be “crude cuts”, while some backbenchers have said they are sceptical and worried about the impact on young disabled people. Last year, Keir Starmer faced a rebellion in the Labour parliamentary party over changes to health and disability benefits, which forced a major U-turn.
Stephen Timms and Pip
A government source said: “The support offer and benefit changes Alan has set out were devised for young people and the specific circumstances they face. But the Timms review has set out that Pip is no longer fit for purpose, and the government will respond to that review when it reports.”
That leaves two reviews moving through the system at the same time: Milburn’s report next week, and the Stephen Timms review into disability benefits that the government will answer when it reports. If the wider extension survives the Labour resistance described inside government, the over-25 version would have to be redesigned around older claimants’ family, caring and health circumstances rather than copied unchanged.
