Professor Charlotte Pearson and Professor Nick Watson from Urban Studies and Social Policy and the Centre for Disability Research write about changes to disability support in the UK, particularly the proposed withdrawal of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) for under 22-year-olds and the likely impact of this on young disabled people.

The recent announcement of changes to key areas of support for disabled people through the Green Paper (DWP, 2025) and the Chancellor’s Spring Statement have been met with highly critical responses from disability organisations and policy commentators. We share these concerns and we remain unconvinced that the proposals to mitigate the effects of these reforms will prove to be effective.

There are some positive areas: the £1 billion in employment support is very welcome. In addition, an acknowledgement that Access to Work - which gives disabled people in employment funds to support their needs – requires updating underlines the urgency in making workplaces accessible and inclusive. Yet these moves have been overshadowed by the broader headline to cut nearly £5 billion from spending, most of which will come through an ill-considered cut to eligibility for the Personal Independence Payment in England and Wales.

Receiving perhaps less attention is the proposed withdrawal of Employment Support Allowance (ESA) for under 22-year-olds. The aim of this, it is claimed, is to stop what was described as a ‘conveyor belt’ from school to a life on benefits for those who are disabled or with health conditions.  In our current research on young disabled people in transition to adulthood we have recently argued that this area is marked by policy failure and the inability to move into work is not the fault of disabled people.  Our data show the many difficulties faced by young disabled people as they negotiate their transition from school to either further or higher education, employment or other meaningful activity. As it stands, services that provide support to young disabled people are siloed, rarely work collaboratively and provision is fragmented. Simply removing ESA from this group will not in any way help to alleviate this situation.

The proposed expansion of the Youth Guarantee for young disabled people is of course welcome and there are a number of good ideas in the guidance published for local Get Britain Working plans, particularly the call for involving disabled people in the development of this work. There are, however, many disabled young people who will not, realistically, be in a position to benefit from these.  For example, employment rates for people with a learning disability currently stand at 5.1% in England and 4.1% in Scotland. These figures have historically remained static and if they are to be altered significantly will require more radical restructuring and investment than proposed by the Green Paper.

Removing ESA from young disabled people seems to us to be blaming the victim rather than tackling the structural inequalities they face as they leave school. Attacking household incomes by removing ESA payments will serve only to create additional pressures on families, many of whom are already facing financial hardship. The link between poverty and disability is well established and should not be ignored.

Further, these reforms cannot be seen in isolation and the impact of similar service cuts across further education and social care will be magnified. There are also significant issues to address in terms of Special Educational Need/Additional Support for Learning provision.

Put bluntly, transition policies are currently failing and the needs of young disabled people have to be addressed in their totality. Removing Employment Support Allowance will not achieve this.

Authors

Charlotte Pearson is Professor of Social Policy (Urban Studies & Social Policy), Her research interests focus on critical analyses of policies which promote independent living and equality for disabled people.

Nicholas Watson is Chair of Disability Studies (Sociological & Cultural Studies) and Professor and Associate of the School of Health & Wellbeing. 

Photo by Nick Kane on Unsplash

First published: 11 April 2025

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