Teenagers and young adults make up nearly one in three people who have recently started claiming disability benefit for anxiety disorders, new research has revealed.

It adds to pressure on the Labour Government to reform welfare and employment support in a way that gets more young people into work.

Disabled people are currently awaiting changes to personal independence payments (PIP), worth up to £800 a month, as ministers prepare a major overhaul of the disability benefit.

Labour ministers are said to be considering removing the health element from universal credit for under-25s who are disabled or ill. Changes could also be made to PIP affecting this age group.

Who could see changes to benefits?

One proposal being discussed is removing the health element of universal credit for all under 25s and replacing it with an intensive “Return to Work” scheme. New claimants are already facing a monthly reduction from next April – down from £429 to £217. 

Reports also suggest that some changes could be made to PIP that would apply to this demographic, though those with the most severe disabilities are not expected to lose any money. Wider changes to the assessment process – affecting all ages – are being reviewed.

The latest PIP figures show that Britain’s youth makes up a large proportion of those who claim the benefit to help them live with anxiety disorders.

A total of 24,681 PIP claimants who have anxiety disorder as their primary condition received the benefit for up to two years, according to official figures to the end of July.

Of these, 7,403 (30 per cent) were aged 16 to 24, according to a new analysis. A further 5,445 (22 per cent) were aged 25 to 34. It means more than half of recent PIP claimants for anxiety disorders have yet to reach their mid-30s.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Jed Boardman said it was likely that the figures “don’t tell the whole story”, and that many young people will have “multiple disabling conditions”, not just anxiety.

Plan to cut PIP spending

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told MPs this summer that the PIP system was struggling with a rise in claims from people with anxiety, depression and neurodiversity.

McFadden the PIP review by disability minister Sir Stephen Timms could see spending on the benefit reduced. The PIP bill is forecast to rise from £32.1bn this year to £44.7bn by 2030-31.

More than half of voters believe young people claiming disability benefits should be hit with sanctions if they turn down work opportunities, polling shared with The i Paper suggests.

The Conservatives have promised that they would urgently reassess all “mild” PIP claims – citing anxiety, depression and ADHD as within this definition.

Shadow work and pension secretary Helen Whateley told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that “handouts” by the welfare system “isn’t helping” young people with mental health problems.

Reform UK has said all those claiming PIP for “mental health or trivial conditions” would be reassessed as part of their plan to cut welfare costs by £50bn a year.

‘Discriminatory to target young people’

“Young people with mental health conditions must not be an easy target for cuts,” said James Taylor, director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope.

Warning the Government against imposing any crude conditions on young people’s benefits, Taylor added: “Eligibility should depend on how a condition affects someone’s life, not their age, diagnosis or a politician’s judgement that their condition is mild.”

James Merrell, a former PIP assessor, told The i Paper that he was worried about the way mental health conditions are “increasingly being described as mild or trivial – particularly by politicians”.

The idea of targeting young people in PIP and universal credit reforms was “extremely concerning”, said Merrell, a registered nurse and disability advocate.

“Just because more young people are claiming PIP doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be entitled to it,” he added. “Disability does not have an age threshold.”

Sir Keir Starmer was forced to ditch plans to squeeze PIP eligibility last year after a rebellion by Labour MPs. However, Andy Burnham has said that the UK must “get really serious” about the cost of welfare.

Timms, who is leading the PIP review, has proposed in an interim report that the disability benefit could partly be made up of “services and other non-cash support”. Labour’s disability minister has also said reforms could “enable PIP to do a better job to support people into employment”.

But Shabaaz Mohammed, a campaigner with Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAG) Manchester, said it would be “discriminatory and illogical to target young people” for any restrictions on claiming PIP or the health element of universal credit.

“It would not get more young people into work because it would make it harder for them to search for work or training,” Mohammed added.

North-south divide among older people

Separately, new research has revealed a clear north-south divide when it comes to the number of older people out of work.

People in the north of England are almost 50 per cent more likely to be out of work later in their working lives than their counterparts in the south, analysis by the Centre for Ageing Better found.

One in four people in the North West and North East are not in employment, training, education or retirement between the age of 50 and state pension age. This compares with fewer than one in five people in the South East.

Dr Andrea Barry, of the Centre for Ageing Better, called on Chancellor John Healey to provide employment support for people in their 50s and 60s who are “shut out of opportunity”.

A Government spokesperson said the increase in the PIP caseload had slowed, falling from 400,000 in the year to July 2024, to 260,000 in the year to this July.

PIP is “no longer fit for purpose and the recommendations from [the Timms Review] final report will lay the foundation for sustainable reform”, they added.