PEOPLE suffering from depression or anxiety could lose access to sickness benefits as part of the government’s major welfare reforms, the Work and Pensions Secretary said today.

Mel Stride announced plans to overhaul disability benefits in a statement to the Commons, with proposals aimed at providing “more tailored support in line with their needs.”

In a green paper published alongside Mr Stride’s statement, ministers set out plans to reform personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability benefit, through changes to eligibility criteria and assessments.

The proposals follow Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement of major changes to the welfare system earlier this month, saying that “people with less severe mental health conditions should be expected to engage with the world of work.”

Tom Marsland, policy manager at the national disability charity Sense, said recent government narrative around disability benefits has been “divisive and deeply damaging.”

He said: “We’ve already heard from disabled people who feel sick with worry that they might lose their PIP, which gives them a vital financial lifeline.

“For most disabled people, disability benefits aren’t covering their costs as it stands — Sense research has found nearly half of disabled people found it difficult to afford costs related to their condition.

“Disabled people desperately need more support, not rhetoric that casts them as undeserving.”

Linda Burnip of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) said that disabled people were feeling negative at the moment due to the government’s policies.

“Why don’t they just build gas chambers — the outcomes would be the same,” she said.

James Taylor, executive director of strategy at disability equity charity Scope, called for an end to the “reckless assault” on disabled people and to fix the “real underlying issues.”

“It’s hard to have any faith that this consultation is about anything other than cutting the benefits bill, no matter the impact,” he said.

Acting shadow work and pensions secretary Alison McGovern said: “The PIP system that the Tories created isn’t working for disabled people and isn’t working for the taxpayer.”

Mr Sunak said the green paper marked “the next chapter of our welfare reforms” that will make the benefits system “fairer to the taxpayer, better targeted to individual needs and harder to exploit.”