Labour think tank behind DWP Universal Credit cuts now wants conditionality for young disabled people

The Resolution Foundation has continued its descent into a cronyist benefit-cutting architect for the ableist Labour government. The supposedly progressive think tank the Canary previously revealed spearheaded the recent Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) welfare cuts, is now calling for a conditionality regime for young disabled claimants.

It comes as a DWP minister has hinted at further forthcoming “reforms” to coerce young disabled people into work.

Resolution Foundation: DWP health benefits to blame for youth unemployment

A new DWP-related report the think tank published Tuesday 28 April claims to investigate the causes behind the UK’s rising rates of young people “not in education, employment, or training”. Specifically, the publication states that it examines:

why the UK’s NEET rate has been rising since 2019, and why it has long been higher than in many other countries.

The think tank cautioned against attributing the rise to a lack of job opportunities for young people, stating:

On the face of it, a lack of jobs availability is not the explanation, since current rates of youth unemployment are not especially elevated relative to unemployment in the wider population.

It seemed to miss the fact there are regularly less than 10 remote, part-time, ‘Disability Confident’ roles available on the government’s own jobs website.

Throughout the report, the think tank compares the situation for so-called NEETs in the UK to other OECD countries.

And for a think tank that proclaims – in the report no less – its dedication to “lifting living standards”, it’s curious that it omitted any mention of the very different living standards for young people across the OECD.

Funny then that the same Resolution Foundation previously found that housing in the UK costs 44% higher than the OECD average. It also highlighted how families in the Netherlands are 39% better off and 21% better off in Germany. Irrelevant systemic background noise, if you read its latest report.

It also pointed to a number of “disadvantages” that act as barriers to work. For instance, this included a lack of GCSE qualifications, disability, and no family support. However, it failed to explore broader structural barriers – racism, ableism, and classism – stopping young people accessing work.

In step with the corporate capitalist Labour government

Instead, the Resolution Foundation offered two main causes for the numbers of so-called NEETs.

The first revolves around low levels of “education participation” for over 16s in “vocational education”. By that, it seems to broadly mean traineeships and apprenticeships, and any work experience-focused education outside university.

Of course, the conclusion aligns nicely for the government busy shunting young people into low-paying McJobs. That’s naturally all while subsidising wealthy corporations to do it through various DWP-related youth employment schemes.

It also makes no mention of the government’s continued abysmal failures around SEND provision. That would be  an obvious factor impacting the accessibility of further education.

However, the think tank’s second conclusion disgustingly opened the door to vilifying young disabled people even further.

Calling for DWP benefit conditionality for young people

Notably, the report argued that the “large gap” between Universal Credit’s standard allowance and its limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) component:

created a strong incentive to claim incapacity benefits on top of the standard allowance.

It also stated that:

This was a key reason why the Government acted last year to cut the UCH element for claimants from April 2026 from £99 to £50 per week, alongside a commitment to above-inflation increases to the standard allowance until 2029-30.

This was of course the same health element the think tank had suggested the DWP should slash in half. And that’s precisely what the government did this April (2026) – all thanks to the Resolution Foundation.

Now, the shameless think tank has said that under 25s claiming the DWP health element should have “tailored work requirements”. In other words, it wants the DWP to introduce a punitive conditionality regime for young disabled people. This will of course be young disabled claimants it has literally assessed as too sick to work.

Because if you’re young and disabled, you should just ‘pull up those bootstraps’ and ‘overcome’ your debilitating health condition.

It also seemed to suggest the government doesn’t need to worry about improving young people’s health to solve the so-called NEET ‘crisis’.

It said:

the cross country data shows that poor health can be consistent with high participation levels, so even if we cannot improve the health of young people in the UK, it should be possible to achieve progress on the UK’s NEET problem with action elsewhere.

In short, other countries have forced chronically ill and disabled young people into work – so the UK can too, via the DWP! The think tank obviously makes no acknowledgement that coercing young disabled people into employment could actually worsen their health.

Laying the groundwork for Labour’s next attack on disabled people

The Resolution Foundation published its report just a day after DWP disability minister Stephen Timms refused to rule out plans to stop the health element for under 22s.

He told parliament that:

Alan Milburn’s review on this will report in September, looking at the NEET problem more broadly, and we are going to wait until then for deciding whether to delay until age 22 access to the Universal Credit health element. If we did decide to do that, there would need to be exceptions.

He also said that:

We think better support might help young people more than extra cash.

The Resolution Foundation’s report did come out against the plan to restrict LCWRA. However, Timms’ answer also highlighted how the think tank’s conditionality proposal could sneak its way into future plans.

It’s highly likely that the Resolution Foundation will be feeding into the Milburn review.

And the think tank has already cemented its servile role in laying the groundwork for this Labour government’s callous benefit cut agenda. As the Canary has repeatedly pointed out, now DWP minister and neoliberal Labour darling Torsten Bell(end) did head the organisation right up until his run for parliament.

So nobody should be surprised if the think tank’s DWP conditionality proposal for under 25s shows up in some form in the Milburn review’s recommendations.

It’s now abundantly clear that disabled people can no longer trust the Resolution Foundation to have their backs when it comes to the DWP.

Featured image via the Canary

By Hannah Sharland

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