Faisal Islam

EXCLUSIVE: Young people will be moved off the main sickness and disability benefits under radical plans to overhaul the welfare state and invest billions of pounds more in employment support. Alan Milburn, who has spent the past year conducting a review into the one million people aged 18-24 who are not in education, employment or training, said he had concluded that the system needed to be rebuilt “from scratch” to stop people being trapped on benefits “in perpetuity” In an interview with The Times, the former health secretary acknowledged that the plans would not be “pain-free” as some people would lose out on financial support. However, he said reforming the system offered the best chance of young people finding work and building a “good life” Under Milburn’s plans, young people would no longer be able to claim the two main sickness and disability benefits: the health element of universal credit and the personal independence payment (Pip). They would instead move on to a new “youth allowance”, paid at the same level as the standard rate of universal credit Many of those who receive Pip, designed to cover additional costs faced by those with a disability, will move on to a new “additional cost allowance”, which will cover day-to-day costs relating to their conditions. Like Pip, it would not be means tested, or linked to whether claimants were in work. Fewer people are likely to be entitled to it Those with the most profound disabilities who are not capable of working would be given a new benefit, paid at a higher rate Milburn will recommend investing billions in employment support, including one-to-one personal advisers, work placements and job subsidies, resulting in young people being presented with a “menu of options” to help them find work “I’m not saying that any of this will be easy, or that it will be pain-free, because it won’t,” Milburn said. “Candidly, it could mean that some people will get less financial support at the beginning of their benefit claim than under the current system. But actually, for young people, there’s a different debate that we’ve got to resolve, which is whether the priority is their longer-term life chances or just their immediate shorter-term finances “I think what the current system does [is] it prioritises the latter over the former. I believe that’s the wrong choice and it needs to be the other way around “The approach I’ve taken on this is to try to define what would give young people the best chance of building a good life, not just over a year or two, but over the course of their lifetimes.” The changes would apply to to both existing and new claimants In exchange for greater employment support, there would be an element of conditionality — if people did not engage with the system, they could lose some of their benefits “A deal isn’t a deal unless there are potential consequences,” Milburn said. “Entitlements and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin.” The plans will require “significant investment” upfront, with savings realised over a decade plus thetimes.com/article/971613c…

Truly astonishing story as Nvidia’s rock star CEO, truly the absolute epicentre of the AI stock market boom, admits an affair, & board initiates an independent investigation into “national security concerns” I actually asked Huang a year ago about China…this is what he told me: Sep 2025: ME: Jensen, you're one of the few people that can walk into the White House, speak to President Trump, and then, within days, go and speak to Xi Jinping. One of the narratives about this UK us tech partnership is that it helps protect the West, kind of against China. I mean, do you see it like that? Is there a battle between the West in which the UK takes the US side against China's expertise in this area? Jensen Huang: President Trump is very clear. He wants America to win and and President Xi wants China to win, and it's possible for for both of them too. And the reason for that is because it's not a zero sum game the advance of of human society is not a zero sum game and and so I, I think that for America to win the technology that win the AI race, particularly, it's important that and President Trump sees this clearly. It's important that all AI companies that all AI research is built on the American tech stack. And so if you would like, if you would like America to be the global standard of technology, just as we are the global standard of the of currency, the US dollar, then you're going to need to make sure that that people can access this technology from all over the world, including China. And so I think that that that President Trump is very clear eyed about this and and the idea that that these this computing technology, is not a national security concern, it is important, and the reason for that is because any military is smart enough to build their military on top of their own indigenous technology, and not rely on an adversary to build their technology, build their military capability. And then I think that that's very sensible. And so I think the the conversations will sort itself out. And, and, and I do, I do hope, enabling American tech stack to be accessible throughout the world for American companies still, still have an advantage. I think that balance is achievable.

Maggie Haberman shares her reporting on what drove Trump's chief of staff change and what's happening in the Trump adminsitrataion right now.