"unsustainable" to support the disabled

Disability Living Allowance is to be abolished and replaced by a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment in 2013/14. All existing DLA claimants will be reassessed for PIP once it is introduced.

Currently 1.8 million people of working age claim some form of DLA (it comes in two components, care and mobility), which rises to 3 million claimants if the under 16s and the over 65s are included. A sector of society that the Disability Alliance UK states is already twice as likely to live in poverty as other citizens. DLA has one of the lowest fraud rates of any benefits - 0.8% between 2008-2009. DLA is not an out-of-work benefit. It is a non-taxable cash payment to disabled people to help them pay for the higher costs of living, care and mobility associated with their illness.

Maria Miller, minister for disabled people, believes supporting the disabled is "unsustainable". The governement "will prioritise support on those individuals who face the greatest day-to-day challenges".

Those people who have a disability that is less severe than someone else's will no longer receive help, regardless of whether that extra support is vital to them. The cuts could see up to 360,000 people losing out on money that they use to help with the higher costs associated with living with a disability. If all 3 million claimants are reassessed this would rise to about 600,000 people.

But we know a disabled person's disability will not go away just because the government has decided to save on its DLA bill.

The Guardian 8 December 2010