Lords vote against cut to disabled young people’s benefits

12 January 2012

Government defeated by 44 votes

Yesterday (11^th January 2012) the House of Lords voted against a proposed cut to a non-means tested benefit avaliable to some disabled young people aged 16 - 20. The proposed cut would mean a drop in financial support of up to £100 per week for some young people and would only save the state £11million per year. The Government has said they will seek to overturn the vote when the Welfare Reform Bill returns to the House of Commons.

Currently, a person under the age of 20 who has had a 'limited capability for work' for 196 consecutive days, can gain entitlement to contributory Employment Support Allowance (ESA) despite not having reached the contributions threshold through paying National Insurance. The Welfare Reform Bill proposes to abolish this non-means tested, income-related benefit, as well as time-limiting its receipt to 12 months for all but the most severly disabled young people. The justification for this change, is that it 'will simplify the benefits system and ensure a consistency of treatment for those claiming ESA'.

Abolishing this benefit would mean that young disabled people will likely only have recourse to the means-tested component. Young disabled people who are ineligible for the means-tested component, which will include those with a partner who works more than 24 hours a week, could therefore lose up to just under £100 a week. This will make it more difficult for disabled young people to afford the additional costs of moving into adulthood.

The Government's impact assessment estimates that:

- Up to 70% of those affected could lose an average of £25 a week as a result of only qualifying for income-related ESA
- A further 10% will lose almost £100 a week by virtue of not qualifying for income-related ESA 
- Only 20%, or just under 3,000 claimants, will get exactly the same amount of income-related ESA that they would have got under the youth provisions

Baroness Meacher told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. "Very severely disabled children coming to adulthood - who will be disabled all their lives and will never have the chance to earn.... these people will have that benefit withdrawn.

"These very non-political crossbenchers felt it was over the line."

Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling has said he will work to overturn the vote when the Bill returns to the House of Commons, saying that the government's measures would see the ESA benefits