TORIES could be considering introducing “cruel and counter-productive” means-tested disability benefits.

Fears have been raised over the possibility of the party folding personal independence payment (PIP), disability living allowance (DLA) and attendance allowance (AA) into the universal credit system.

The Conservatives failed to deny today that it was looking at the highly controversial measures after it emerged focus group participants had been asked last week to pick which groups, including disabled people, “deserved” the benefits they received.

A participant told Disability News Service that she had been asked about which people “deserve” various benefits and what they think about the idea of means-testing “extra cost” benefits.

Her focus group was also asked which groups they would remove benefits from “if they had to” and which benefits were “too high” with questions about the “extra cost benefit” ending with a question on whether it should be means-tested on the grounds of “affordability.”

She added that she had been briefed in advance that the research would examine the cost-of-living and inflation crisis, but the second half of the session focused on benefits.

A spokesman for Roots Research told the Morning Star that its only involvement in the market research was to recruit appropriate participants.

He said the work had been carried out following a request by a “third party” market research firm and cited legal reasons for refusing to disclose any details on the questions asked. He would not comment on whether it had received government contracts in the past. 

Alarm over the possibility the Tories could introduce means-tested PIP were raised after the party published its Shaping Future Support green paper two years ago.

It suggested that ministers could create a “new single benefit” to simplify the disability benefit application and assessment process and that this would “provide support for disabled people and people with health conditions on low income and with extra costs.”

PIP alone is claimed by three million Brits, who receive up to £156.90 a week if they can show they need help with the costs of being disabled.

A spokesman for Momentum said: “Means testing benefits would be both a cruel policy and, as studies have repeatedly shown, a counter-productive one.

“Instead of targeting the disabled and the poor, we should be raising revenue by levelling taxes on the wealthiest, so those with the broadest shoulders pay.”