MEL STRIDE aimed to “ramp up hatred” when he claimed that the cost of paying benefits to people with certain disabilities amounts to thousands of pounds a month, a campaign group said today.

The Work and Pensions Secretary spoke to BBC Breakfast on Monday about personal independence payments (PIP), a benefit for those who have extra living costs due to long-term health problems, ahead of a consultation on proposed welfare reforms.

He said: “What we know with PIP is that it’s a very blunt benefit.

“So you get a fixed amount of money per month, irrespective in many ways of your condition.

“In some cases, that may be a condition that needs something like a grab rail to get into the bath and various other appliances of that kind, which are relatively inexpensive.

“You might even be able to get them from your local authority or local NHS and yet the PIP benefit is thousands of pounds a month.”

Depending on the rate assigned, a person on PIP will receive between £405.40 and £798.63 a month — far less than “thousands of pounds.”

Linda Burnip of Disabled People Against Cuts told the Morning Star today: “Obviously, one has to wonder whether Mel Stride has ever spoken to or even seen a real disabled person.

“It’s very clear that Mel and co are only interested in stirring up hatred against disabled people and asylum-seekers and that in the run-up to elections [today] they ramped up their hate rhetoric.

“Disabled people have been shown by research to have higher living costs than non-disabled people and should receive extra funding to adequately meet these essential needs, such as higher fuel costs, special diets and medications.”

The Department for Work and Pensions said that Mr Stride had made a mistake during the live interview and that he had intended to say “thousands of pounds a year.”