Young people caught in crosshairs of health and disability reforms

Competing visions

The Get Britain Working white paper, launched in November 2024, sets out an ambition for a Youth Guarantee to ensure all 18– to 21-year-olds in England have access to education, training or help to find a job or apprenticeship. The Government’s plan for a guaranteed pathway into education, employment, or training for all young people partially adopts what the youth employment sector has called for in recent years.

The white paper plan for young people and employment support sounds positive overall. It recognises the need for localised and personalised support to help those with multiple barriers to employment. A Youth Guarantee will especially benefit young people closest to the labour market in the short term, and proposes steps to better identify those at risk of becoming long-term unemployed or economically inactive.

In contrast to the more supportive narrative outlined in the white paper, the Pathways to Work green paper proposes around £7 billion (gross) in cuts to social security for health, disability, and carers in 2029/30, with the impact growing over time. According to the Government’s own assessment, it risks pushing 250,000 people (including 50,000 children) into poverty.

For young people, the Pathways to Work green paper aims to create a ‘clearer youth phase’ in the benefits system and is consulting on changes to the benefit rules to support and underpin the Youth Guarantee, ensuring that all young people are learning or earning.

Key to this is the proposal to delay access to claiming the Universal Credit (UC) health element - Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) - until someone is aged 22, and use the money saved from this change to fund employment support.

The green paper states that this will remove any potential disincentive to work. If implemented, this would mean that from 2027/28 onwards, young people with health conditions who qualify for LCWRA would only receive the standard allowance until 22. Young people's existing LCWRA claims will be frozen, and new claims will be cut to £50 per week and frozen from April 2026 to 2029/30. The green paper states that around 150,000 16- to 24-year-olds are in the LCWRA group.

The Youth Guarantee will expand conditionality to all young people aged 18 to 21 in the LCWRA group, with the expectation to engage in work or learning. As with the wider plans to scrap the Work Capability Assessment, the green paper states that it will ‘consider what special provisions need to be put in place for those young people where engagement with the guarantee is not a realistic prospect’.

It is unclear what the 'special provisions' are likely to be for those 18- to 21-year-olds currently in the LCWRA group (the green paper states that there are 66,000) and how, or who, will determine whether a young person can engage with the guarantee. However, without clarity, young people already facing complex challenges may be exposed to punitive conditionality.

Proposals hit people already in hardship

Young people not in employment, education or training are over 2-and-a-half times more likely to be in poverty than those in work or education. Figures are even starker for young people not in employment, education or training and who do not live with parents or caregivers. This group is more than 3 times more likely to be in poverty than 16- to 24-year-olds in work, education or training (60% compared to 18%) (See Figure 1).

In our recent research, young people told us they struggle to cover the cost of essentials. Many cite being unable to heat their homes, afford food or replace broken furniture or electrical items. One young care leaver receiving UC and facing a complex housing and support situation explained how the inadequacy and conditionality of benefit support caused them significant anxiety on top of their day-to-day challenges:

“I get [£x amount] per week, it may sound like a lot, but it’s not – it’s damn near impossible to live off. I don’t know if it’s the same with other benefits – but they threaten your money at every given opportunity. You put one foot wrong, they’ll threaten to cut your benefits. If they don’t think you’re looking hard enough for a job – they’ll cut your payment.”

Young person, 16–24, Bradford

People in complex circumstances worst off

Young people furthest from the labour market often have complex and overlapping issues of disadvantage. Figure 2 illustrates that the prevalence of mental health issues is particularly high among young people who experience complex circumstances compared to the total population of 16– to 24-year-olds reporting mental health problems. Young people in this group not only require support with their mental health, which is often just the tip of the iceberg, but also with financial difficulties and housing before being able to progress toward work or training.

Barring young people from claiming benefit support they may be entitled to, and punitive conditionality, risks pushing this group of young people into deeper hardship, and further away from engaging with employment or training. It may also deter young people from engaging in support, risking them becoming ‘hidden’ from the system.

Moreover, under-25s already receive lower rates of UC than older adults, and evidence shows that support from the social security system has fallen so low that it is harder, not easier, for people to move into work. Evidence also suggests that benefit inadequacy and punitive conditionality may have contributed to higher health-related benefits caseloads in recent years, as people with health conditions seek to find more support elsewhere in the welfare system.

Furthermore, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has reduced the level of support it offers to UC claimants due to a shortage of available work coaches. A recent DWP Youth Offer evaluation found that Youth Employability Coaches (YECs) – support aimed at young people with the most complex needs – are already spread thinly with high caseloads and no capacity to provide the intensive support required.

This comes despite the department’s proposal, as part of its £1 billion package of employment support accompanying the benefit reforms, to redeploy 1,000 work coaches to deliver intensive employment support to around 65,000 sick and disabled people in 2025/26.

A blended approach to labour-market policy

Young people with health conditions should be offered more support to move into work or learning, but doing so does not have to be contingent on cutting their benefits or imposing punitive conditionality.

To ensure that labour-market policy unlocks the potential of young people furthest from the labour market, the approach needs to combine a functioning, adequate safety net and public services with highly tailored active labour-market policies to support young people into employment. For the social security system to fully leverage the Youth Guarantee’s potential:

• The UC health element should not be cut for young people under 22. Young people who are too unwell to work and qualify for the UC health element should not have to wait until they’re 22 to make a claim. Ideas like the ‘Right to Try Guarantee’ outlined in the green paper will help to remove the perceived barriers that prevent people from working, but the Government risks undermining this positive proposal with the cuts it has set out.
• UC guarantees the essentials for young people who are entitled to claim it and need it to participate in the Youth Guarantee. A robust financial safety net is essential for young people to access employment, education, or training opportunities.
• Young people who experience multiple and overlapping issues of disadvantage need active labour-market policies that are well resourced and highly personalised. Elements of programme design that have been successful in engaging young people furthest from the labour market have included the option of voluntary participation, long-term consistent support from a dedicated key worker, access to support based in their community, flexibility within programmes, participation of employers and the use of subsidised employment. Direct access to specialist support and resources in housing, health, addiction services or bereavement support is vitally important to any attempt at supporting a young person’s moves towards employment.

You can read JRF's report on how to design labour market policy that unlocks the potential of young people furthest from the labour market.