Disability activists have raised concerns that young disabled people are being unfairly targeted in welfare reforms aimed at pushing more people into work.
Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) who live with mental health or neurodivergent conditions are more likely to be hospitalised than their working or studying peers, according to newly published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The analysis combines NHS hospital episode statistics with data from the 2021 Census to provide a snapshot of hospital admissions among 16 – 24-year-olds across England and Wales.
In total, 239,340 young people in this age group had been hospitalised for at least one day, accounting for more than 400,000 inpatient stays, around 5% of all young people at the time of the census.
However, the risk is not evenly distributed. Young people classified as NEET were more than twice as likely to be admitted to hospital compared with those in education, employment or training.
The data also highlights a notable concentration of hospitalisations among those with mental health and behavioural conditions, including neurodivergence. These conditions accounted for 46% of hospitalised young people, the highest share among all chronic illness categories, including cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Within this group, around one-third were NEET, underlining the overlap between economic inactivity and poor mental health.
The findings come against a backdrop of persistently high levels of youth inactivity. Official figures show that 957,000 people aged 16 to 24, 12.8% of that age group, were NEET in the final quarter of 2025.
Research by the Youth Futures Foundation suggests that rising levels of long-term sickness, mental illness and neurodivergence have been key drivers of this trend in recent years.
Ministers have largely attributed the increase in NEET figures to a rise in diagnoses of mental health and neurodivergent conditions.
But according to Disability News Service, government officials have made repeated insinuations around ‘overdiagnosis’ of neurodivergence and questioned the severity of young people’s mental health. The news agency points to comments former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn, who is leading an independent inquiry to look into the “drivers of the increase in the number of young people who are Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET) and claiming health and disability benefits, including childhood experience.”
In an interview for the Times in January, Milburn said anxiety and depression are “normal”, to argue that the majority of young disabled people should not be claiming benefits for these conditions.
Critics argue that this narrative is undermined by the latest ONS data and have raised concerns that young disabled people are being unfairly targeted in welfare reforms aimed at pushing more people into work.
“… the high rates of hospitalisations in the ONS data for these conditions challenge Milburn’s narrative,” writes Disability News Service.
“The figures also rebuff the Labour government’s contention that work is always positive for young people’s mental health.”
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