DWP boss Pat McFadden has urged Labour Party MPs to back his plans for welfare overhauls targeting 16-24 year olds, with Andy Burnham said to be considering it
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) chief Pat McFadden has called on Labour Party MPs to support his reform proposals, with the Guardian reporting there are “signs” the government “is looking to cut payments for some DWP benefit claimant 16- to 24-year-olds.”
Speaking at the party conference this weekend, Mr McFadden declared it was time for Labour to “renew” the system originally established by the Clement Attlee government and revamped by New Labour.
The cabinet minister, who serves under Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister, warned there would be “decisions to make and responsibilities to take” following the publication of two system reviews this autumn – one on young people by Alan Milburn, examining changes for those aged 16 to 24, and another on a key disability benefit by the Timms panel.
He stated Labour must determine “how we have a new system focused on opportunity, how we move from asking what are you entitled to, to asking how do we change your life.
“It falls to us, the party which did so much to create it, the party that holds it dear, to embrace the change needed.”, reports Birmingham Live.
The government is anticipated to devise a fresh system that will concentrate on supporting younger people into employment and training, expanding upon the existing “jobs guarantee” that finances work placements for under-25s for six months, with disabled young people receiving fast-track access. Mr McFadden also lambasted the right-wing parties calling for cuts to benefits for working-age young people, accusing them of labelling this group as “a generation of snowflakes and shirkers”.
He questioned: “What kind of patriotism is it that attacks your own younger generation? Our belief in our country says we will lift you up and give you a chance, we won’t blame you for the challenges you face.”
He pointed out: “A young person who signs on for sickness benefits when they are twenty years old is now more likely to reach the age of thirty and still be on them than to have held down a steady job in any one of the intervening years. A young person under twenty-five on the health element of universal credit is now less likely to find work than someone over fifty-five on the very same benefit.
“And worst of all a young person left out of work is far more likely to die before their time than the friends they sat beside in school. We should not accept it. We have to change it. Conference, this status quo is not a system around which to circle the wagons. It’s a system to change so that we can give a chance to life for the people it too often signs off and writes off.”
Mr McFadden revealed that the government would soon receive reports from Alan Milburn about Neets (young people not in education, employment or training) and from Stephen Timms about the personal independence payment ( Pip ) disability benefit.
When those were out, it would propose “a new system focussed on opportunity”, he said.
Approximately 205,000 16- to 24-year-olds received PIP for disabilities associated with ADHD or autism in April this year at a cost in 2025-26 of £1.36bn. Mr McFadden stated that both the financial cost and the human cost of the system were “too high”.