Badenoch says young people with ADHD should not be on disability benefits as Conservatives set out £36bn welfare cuts plan

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said young people with ADHD should not be on disability benefits. She said it in a speech in central London on Tuesday 10 November, when her party set out plans to cut £36 billion from the welfare bill, LBC reports.

The Conservatives are in opposition, so these are proposals and not government policy. Still, they show how ADHD, learning disabilities and other neurodivergent conditions are being talked about in the welfare debate.

What Badenoch said

According to LBC, Badenoch argued that the benefits system tells young people with ADHD that they cannot do anything. She said:

“If you tell a young person that their ADHD means they are defective and they can’t do anything, that is likely to be more destructive to their future than the condition itself.”

She also argued that many people with serious challenges can and do work. One of her examples was that autistic people run some of the world’s biggest tech companies. Asked whether there was a risk of blaming young people, she said no one was blaming them. She said the problem was a system that spends too much on welfare.

LBC’s report did not include a response from ADHD, autism or learning disability organisations.

What the plan includes

LBC says the party has published a 52-page plan called “welfare that works”. The parts most relevant to neurodivergent people are:

• £13.7 billion from changes to disability and sickness benefits, including scrapping payments for mild mental health conditions and routine back and joint pain.
• £2.8 billion from stopping child Disability Living Allowance (DLA) cash payments for what LBC describes as mild learning and behavioural conditions.

LBC’s report does not say how “mild” would be defined or who would decide. Families of neurodivergent children are likely to want answers on both.

Other measures include stopping foreign nationals without EU settled status from claiming benefits, which the party puts at £9.5 billion. It would also bring back the two-child benefit cap, which Labour reversed last year, saving £3.1 billion a year by the party’s figures.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said young people coming off benefits would need intensive support to find work. But she suggested there would be no extra money for employment support. She said young people who didn’t show up would not get welfare.

How others responded

Sara Ogilvie, policy director at Child Poverty Action Group, said the plans would “take the UK back to the dark ages”. She warned they would cause the biggest overnight rise in child poverty since records began. Badenoch rejected this. She said the best way to keep children out of poverty was for parents to have well-paid jobs.

A Labour spokesperson blamed the Conservatives for the size of the welfare bill. They said the Conservatives designed the current benefits system, and that further reforms would follow two reviews now under way. Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper warned that disabled people and children growing up in poverty would “pay the price”.

What happens next

Two reviews are expected to report in the coming weeks, according to LBC. Stephen Timms is leading a review of disability benefits. Alan Milburn is leading one into young people who are not in employment, education or training. Labour says further reforms will follow these reviews.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast that welfare spending will reach £431 billion by 2031-32, mainly because of health-related and pensioner benefits, LBC reports.

This piece summarises reporting by LBC. Read the original article for the full story.