Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) boss Liz Kendall announced £5bn in cuts on Tuesday 18 March. She did so under the guise of ‘welfare reforms’ which, if implemented will no doubt kill young disabled people en masse.
Part of her announcement was that people under the age of 22 would no longer be eligible for the limited capability for work related activity (LCWRA) part of Universal Credit (UC). This means young disabled people will lose out on £416.19 every month. That’s £4,994.28 every year.
Young people will still be able to apply for PIP. However, that is an impossibly long and often pointless process, with the DWP rejecting nearly 50% of claims.
Under 25? The DWP doesn’t care
Young people are already entitled to less on UC. Which is pretty messed up, considering a loaf of bread costs the same no matter how old you are. Do MP’s think that landlords are super friendly and deduct 40% when they realise the prospective tenant is under 35? Do they fuck.
Young people already face additional battles to simply surviving. And now, the government seem to think that young people don’t have disabilities or chronic illnesses.
On Tuesday night, Victoria Derbyshire challenged DWP minister Torsten Bell during BBC’s Newsnight. He showed us all how little he really knows and understands about the system he has so much control over.
Anyone under the age of 35 is only entitled to the shared accommodation rate of housing benefit. This is nowhere near enough for a one bedroomed tenancy.
Housing benefit is rarely fully covered due to LHA and young people get a “shared accommodation rate” – certainly nowhere near enough for a single tenancy. There’s so much ignorance about the reality of the system. https://t.co/rz1iILxecB
— Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick (@C_Fitz_) March 19, 2025
This means most young people – disabled or not – can only afford a shared house. And a cheap one, at that. Obviously, a government minister on upwards of £80k a year would not know that, or care. Which is exactly the problem.
Torsten Bell on #newsnight demonstrating a spectacular lack of understanding of how the benefits system works for young people. Their full rent is rarely covered by benefits – the best most can get is the cost of a room in a shared house in the bottom third of the market
— Sarah Honeysett 💙🌻 (@HoneysettSarah) March 18, 2025
Young people also get far less housing benefit BTW- not that I expect this guy to know that.
— DWP Spin Decoder (@leith1076) March 19, 2025
Torsten Bell-end
Before becoming both parliamentary under-secretary to the Treasury and the DWP, Bell was the chief executive of the generally progressive thinktank the Resolution Foundation. However, as the Canary revealed on Monday, the Resolution Foundation was the brainchild behind some of Labour’s regressive plans for the Universal Credit health-related component.
Notably, the thinktank proposed that to raise the basic rate of UC, the DWP could CUT the health uplift. This means of course, the government are be punishing chronically ill and disabled people who are unable to work.
And lo and behold, Labour’s Green Paper confirmed that this is precisely now what it’s looking to do with the benefit. Under what appears to have been Resolution Foundation advice, it wants to slash the health-related part of UC by 50% for new claimants from 2026/27. This would mean they would lose £146 a month (18%) of their benefits.
So, is it any surprise that the thinktank’s former director and now DWP turncoat is laundering more plans cooked up in the cauldron of hell that is Kendall’s department?
Not only is it cutting the LCWRA part of UC for claimants, it wants to deny it to young people altogether. Go figure Bell would back this too.
Oh shut up, Wes
Additionally, Wes Streeting was recently banging on about ‘over-diagnosis’ of both mental health conditions and neurodivergence. The hilarious part? It takes years and years of waiting lists and appointments and more waiting lists, to even see a mental health professional. Let alone get an assessment or diagnosis.
Labour want to cut DWP benefits for young disabled people. Many of them are claiming due to mental health conditions such as PTSD. But, at the same time they are completely failing to address NHS waiting times and the support people actually receive.
You cannot cut benefits for disabled young people, mostly with mental health conditions, whilst there is a 3+ YEAR waiting list for CAMHS.
— Jacob Harris (@jacobwharris) March 19, 2025
Recently, ministers voted to be able to raise assisted suicide with children. This means doctors can talk to under 18’s about having assistance to end their own life. Meanwhile, they want to take benefits off disabled young people. This will no doubt push more people into wanting to end their own lives. Anyone would think the government and DWP are trying to kill young people off.
So lemme get this right, ill kids who feel like a burden are going to be allowed #AssistedDying whilst at the same time Rachel Reeves is going round saying young people on benefits are a “stain on this country”
— Rachel Charlton-Dailey (@RachelCDailey) March 5, 2025
This is important to note what the committee voted for. They have voted to be able to raise assisted suicide with CHILDREN https://t.co/331vpAEwQb
— Tanni Grey-Thompson (@Tanni_GT) March 4, 2025
The Canary’s prophetic columnist Rachael Swindon said that Kendall on a welfare cut warpath might very well send chronically ill and disabled people off to die in their droves for another pointless war.
Fast-forward to Tuesday and Kendall was chest-beating this very thing.
The DWP wants us dead
Responding to a question from Tory MP Mark Pritchard, she said she would push more young people to join the armed forces and talk with the Ministry of Defence to “put this plan into action”.
So if you’re under 22 and can’t work because of PTSD – don’t worry, Labour has a plan for you. Join the army! Fight in a war! Labour want to give you a gun and probably some explosives. Every mentally ill young person’s dream, right?
MPs don’t have an ounce of compassion for young disabled people. But then, the right-wing press hasn’t spent the last year banging on about “workless youth” pushing up the “benefits bill” for no reason.
So to sum up, chronically ill and disabled under 22 are old enough to 1. Choose assisted suicide (or at least have doctors float the idea if you’re younger than 18, and 2. have the DWP shunt them into the armed forces to go off and die in Labour’s pointless wars (and probably abetting Israel’s genocide any day now too).
But they’re not old enough to get UC’s health-related part. One thing’s for sure, if Labour doesn’t get “down with the kids” it’ll be down Labour come the next election, because they can sure as hell count on the fact that Gen Zers won’t forget this.
Feature image via the Canary
