Universal Credit (Exceptions to the Requirement not to be receiving Education) (Amendment) Regulations 2021

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Monday 13th December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Storey (LD)]

My Lords, disabled young people need all the support and help that our society can give them. Those disabled young people who have become students—who are learning and want to progress in education and who want to go to college and university—should not be facing barriers. They should not be facing checks and counterchecks, making it as difficult as possible for them to get the financial support that they need. It strikes me as strange that we hear from the Government so many times that there should be no barriers to learning or supporting young people, when these very young people have barrier after barrier against them.

Tomorrow, sadly, the new regulations come into being, and that will have dire consequences for disabled people in education, as they will be prevented from claiming crucial universal credit. The new regulations will prevent disabled people who are receiving education accessing a universal credit claim if they have not established what is called a “limited capacity for work” status before they started receiving education. This effectively means that many disabled people will be unable to receive universal credit if they are in education, which creates the risk that certain groups of young people will be unable to finish their education, limiting their employment opportunities in future.

Of course, this is not the first time that the Department for Work and Pensions has misinterpreted the needs of disabled people. Disability Rights UK stated that 30,000 disabled students could have been affected by the DWP’s misunderstanding of the law which prevented thousands of disabled students from claiming benefits essential for their cost of living in the past seven years. Testimony of numerous disabled students has described cases where education has been put beyond their reach.

In 2013, around 8.6% of higher education students were disabled, yet in an NUS survey from that year, 59% of disabled respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they had been worried about not having enough money to meet basic living expenses, compared to 47% of non-disabled respondents. Only 33% agreed or strongly agreed that they were able to concentrate on their studies without worrying about finances, compared to 45% of non-disabled students, and 55% have already seriously considered leaving their course, compared with 35% of non-disabled respondents. Among those, 54% reported that it was because of financial problems, 36% because of a health problem, and only 20% that it was because of a disability issue.

Although this data is from 2013, it shows important patterns in the difficulties that disabled students have faced in the past and continue to face today in financing their studies. The current proposed changes will only exacerbate obstacles faced by disabled students in accessing high-quality education, forcing certain disabled students to choose between staying in education, but without being able to access crucial resources in sustaining themselves, and dropping out altogether, which will create immeasurable strain on their current well-being as well as future prospects. Overall, cutting off access to universal credit for many disabled students who are currently in education would create additional obstacles and severely impede the Government’s objective of empowering and supporting disabled people across the UK.

Even before the regulations come into force tomorrow, the current rules make it difficult for disabled people in education to claim universal credit, and the new rules will restrict access even further. Students are caught in an impossible situation; they need a work capability assessment to get a “limited capacity for work” status, but the main way in which to access that assessment is by starting a claim for universal credit, and they need “limited capacity for work” status before they can get universal credit. It is not clear how refusing disabled people means-tested support through universal credit, because they do not have “limited capacity for work” status before receiving education, would support them in achieving their potential or starting, staying and succeeding in employment.

This is not an area of strength for me, and I have struggled to understand many of the issues—so God help those poor students who are trying to work their way through this. In reality, the regulations will force many young disabled people who cannot go without financial support from universal credit to drop out of education altogether. What the Government are doing is, frankly, appalling: disabled students already face so many barriers to engaging fully in education, and now the Government plan to callously rip away the additional support offered by universal credit. This truly is penny-pinching of the worst kind. As Child Poverty Action Group has warned, this change in the rules will close off the only route for young disabled learners, meaning that many could be forced out of education altogether. We need to support and empower everyone living with a disability to achieve their full potential, not pull the rug out from underneath them. I beg to move.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, during this year, I have been chairing the Youth Unemployment Committee. The day after the publication of our report Skills for Every Young Person a couple of weeks ago, I received some comments on the sections relating to disabled young adults concerning the impact of this statutory instrument on the report’s objectives. The context of our report was that, while there was a range of mechanisms in place to support young people with additional needs, the recent Plan for Jobs had no targeted support for people with disabilities. We said that, as part of their forthcoming consultation on strengthening pathways to employment for disabled people, the Government should consider grant funding for a jobs guarantee for unemployed disabled young people.

Meanwhile, quite separately, this statutory instrument has been tabled, and it is very worrying because it is not a minor change. The assessment for a limited capability for work determination now must be made before the young person becomes a student. Only then are they entitled to universal credit. That, as my noble friend Lord Storey has made clear, is a significant change. I hope that the Government will reflect on how this position has been reached, not least because this proposed change in benefit entitlement has not been subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

Those affected are, first, young disabled people aged 16 to 19 and those with long-term health conditions who previously would have been able to claim universal credit in their own right. Secondly, it affects those young disabled people or those with long-term health conditions who are in advanced education: typically 18 to 23 year-olds attending university. Thirdly, it affects those who continue in non-advanced education but who cannot qualify for help because of their age. There has been no published impact assessment, but because individual circumstances can be complex, there might be a wide variety of impacts that should have been properly analysed and still should be, and the information shared. I regret very much that this has not been done. As my noble friend Lord Storey said, young disabled people face multiple barriers, and these regulations should not be adding to them.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, this important Motion really deserves attention: the noble Lords, Lord Storey and Lord Shipley, have set out the case very clearly. The Government often express great concern about productivity and unemployment, and stress their belief in the importance of education. Of course, we talk very often in your Lordships’ House about the skills shortage and how we have to fill it in; but what we have here is a change carried forward, as has been outlined, in an utterly inappropriate way. It will deprive people—mostly young people—who are seeking to make the most of their skills, talents and abilities of the means to move forward; they will be put in a position where that is simply no longer possible. It is worth thinking about how incredibly dispiriting that is for each individual affected. They will find themselves in this situation when they thought they were doing everything right—everything that society had been telling them that they were supposed to be doing—and now face the disappointment of their parents and families, who see this opportunity being snatched away.

I have put this in the Government’s own terms: what will this do for the economy and for GDP? However, I would also put it into broader, green terms. We face economic, social, environmental, political and educational crises. We have a huge shortage of human resources capable of solving all those problems that are facing us. We need to ensure that every individual in our society is allowed to develop to their full potential.