Reports are emerging that work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith plans to tax disability benefits, including personal independence payment (PIP) and disability living allowance (DLA) as the Conservative crackdown on disabled claimants continues to gather pace.{jcomments on}
Whilst no official policy has yet been announced, a special adviser confirmed that IDS had given an interview to the Times newspaper on this issue and also covered the possibility of limiting child benefit to two children.
IDS is claiming that taxing PIP and DLA for better off claimants would raise several billions in extra tax and leave more money to pay higher rates to poorer claimants.
But at Huffington Post, Lisa Egan pointed out that some claimants getting employment and support allowance and DLA or PIP could find themselves having to pay tax – scarcely people that could be called better off.
She also argued that some disabled claimants may be pushed out of work because they will no longer be able to afford the support needed to allow them to work in the first place.
