Milburn review expected to move under-25s off health elements of benefits

Alan Milburn's government-commissioned review is expected to recommend that under-25s can no longer claim the health element of Universal Credit or Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a disability benefit, according to the BBC. The report is due to be published on Tuesday.

The review was set up to reduce the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training, often shortened to NEET. Milburn led it over a year. He is a former Labour health secretary and was a Labour MP from 1992 to 2010.

Office for National Statistics data for April to June suggests just under one million young people in the UK are NEET, a rise of 3% on the same period last year. One in eight 18- to 24-year-olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training.

Under the proposal, under-25s would instead receive an allowance paid at the same basic rate as Universal Credit. The review is also expected to propose a new "additional cost allowance" for some claimants, to cover day-to-day costs linked to their conditions. A separate new benefit would be paid at a higher rate to people with more severe disabilities who are unable to work.

Milburn said his plans would not be "pain-free". He said they would affect both existing and new claimants, and that some people could receive less financial support at the start of a benefit claim than under the current system.

The review is also expected to recommend billions of pounds of investment in employment support for young people. That support would include work placements, job subsidies and one-to-one personal advisers. Under the proposed system, young people could lose some of their benefits if they did not engage with the extra work support on offer.

The report will show how the government responds once it is published on Tuesday.