Presumptive new PM Andy Burnham has given yet another signal of his intention to continue where Keir Starmer and his Blair tribute act leave off. Burnham is now working “hand-in-glove” with Starmer adviser and Blairite privatiser Alan Milburn on forcing people into work.

Milburn blames young people

The plan is, of course, dressed up as “opportunity and life chances” for young people. However, Milburn’s May 2026 interim report for Starmer makes clear that the aim is to force them into work for economic growth rather than their benefit. 60% of those targeted are not currently looking for work — and Milburn, in classic Tory ‘sustainability’ language, calculates that not making them work is suppressing the UK economy:

we estimate the cumulative annual cost to our country of almost 1 million NEET young people at £125 billion. … The question is no longer whether the current position is affordable. It is whether it is sustainable.

‘Paid too much’

Starmer’s Work and Pensions secretary Liz Kendall has inflicted massive cuts on disabled people. Following Tory tactics, she is trying to force them into work by making life on disability benefits impossible, rather than by raising pay and conditions above benefit levels. To justify this, Kendall lied to present disability benefits as ‘unsustainable’ and requiring ‘reform’ — which only ever means cuts. She has slashed disability ‘top-ups’ by half and deprived hundreds of thousands of disabled people of up to £7,000 a year.

This is clearly the model Milburn intends to follow – ‘hand-in-glove’ with Burnham. His ‘interim’ report clearly targets young people’s wages, claiming they are too high and a disincentive for employers. In a section titled “The economics of hiring”, he writes:

Meanwhile, the cost and regulatory burden of employing young people has risen. Since 2019–20, minimum wages for young workers have risen sharply. The rate for 21- to 24-year-olds has increased by 65 per cent, for 18- to 20-year-olds by 76 per cent, and for under-18s by 84 per cent.

Over the same period, the rate for those aged 25 and over increased by 55 per cent. These are substantial changes in the cost of employing younger workers.

If Milburn intends to cut or cap wage costs, then he intends benefit cuts to make life unliveable for young people to force them to accept poverty wages so employers can increase profits. This is a continuation of the Tory slogan “Make work pay”, which always meant ‘make unemployment so punishing that accepting peanuts the only option’.

‘Target the disabled’

And, just like Kendall, Milburn has his beady eye on disabled young people particularly. And he’s not shy about saying so:

Universal Credit operates a binary financial structure for young people with health conditions. A single young person with no dependents or housing costs assessed in a Work Capability Assessment as Fit to Work or since 2017, having Limited Capability to Work, received £316.98 per month in 2025/26. If that person received the Limited Capability for Work Related Activity element they would get £740.25: significantly more than double.

The financial incentives for the young person are clearly stacked in favour of choosing a path to inactivity, not participation.

‘Our cruelty is too kind’

Kendall’s swingeing cuts are inflicting misery on millions of people, but Milburn thinks they aren’t cruel enough for disabled young people:

The LCWRA [limited capability and work-related assessment] element has been reduced from £430 to £217 per month for most new claimants and will be frozen until 2029/30. This means that this year, a new, single, under-25 claimant with no housing costs or dependents will be £217 better off with the LCWRA element, a 64 per cent increase above the standard allowance alone, compared to an increase of 134 per cent for similar claimants in 2025/26.

This rebalancing makes the health journey significantly less financially attractive.

And Milburn is not just planning to use general financial pressure. He wants disabled young people forced to jump through even more hoops through so-called ‘conditionality’. This Tory favourite means targets on work searches and other activity, enforced by ‘sanctions’ involving often-lengthy withholding of benefits to force compliance:

But incentives at entry are not just about differential rates. The sharp contrast in conditionality between the two regimes also plays a significant role. Young people found fit for work can be required to search for work full time, meet the terms of their claimant commitment and attend a face-to-face appointment once a week or fortnightly. If they miss this appointment, they can be sanctioned up to 100 per cent of their benefit payment. By contrast, many young people on the health journey have no regular, personalised engagement.

In other words, the DWP is not being cruel enough to young people with a disability. Some 44% of the ‘NEETs’ (not in education, employment or training) targeted by the report have a work-limiting disability. Many have mental health issues resulting from the UK’s ‘perfect storm’ of economic precariousness, soaring living costs, injustice and reduced services.

Milburn concludes that young people with these issues are being coddled, compared to the punitive regime imposed on the rest:

The system has turned into a binary choice between looking for work on very little money with heavy conditionality and not looking for work on more money with no requirements and no support.

Capital gains, as usual (for Milburn)

In his 219-page report, Milburn implies that he wants to support more young people into work for their good. But – just as with Kendall – this is window-dressing for forcing them into it for economic reasons that have little to do with benefiting ordinary people.

Nothing is done to address the gross causes of poor physical and mental health among young people and others. Meanwhile, employers will either be allowed to pay less or receive state subsidies. Both cases will fatten private profits at the public’s expense, while the benefits of ‘economic growth’ are enjoyed primarily by capital.

Rather than sack Milburn from a role he first received from the Tories, then from Blair tribute act Starmer, Burnham is holding his hand. As with so many of the issues desperately needing real change, those hoping Burnham is going to end the damaging practices and politics of successive red and blue Tory governments look almost certain to have their hopes dashed.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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