Damian Green has insisted the government did not try to use the cover of the Copeland and Stoke by-elections to sneak out cuts to disability benefits. The government is facing a backbench Tory backlash against plans to roll back a legal ruling extending the personal independence payments (PIP) disability benefit. A tribunal has ruled that the criteria for qualifying for PIP payments should be expanded to include more people with mental health conditions. It is expected to include 160,000 extra people and cost £3.5bn. The government disagrees and moved to block the ruling in parliament on Thursday - as most MPs were focused on the by-elections. But Green, the work and pensions secretary, today dismissed suggestions he had behaved in a secretive way. “The idea this was slipped out is simply ridiculous,” he told the Commons. “Far form being slipped out, we in the department made a huge effort to let people know this was happening. I personally left a message with the shadow secretary of state.” Green told MPs today the decision to block the expansion of PIP was “not a spending cut”. “This will not result in any claimant seeing a reduction in the amount of PIP previously awarded,” he said. And Green said more people with mental health conditions received payments under PIP than they did under the previous Disability Living Allowance system. The head of Theresa May’s policy unit yesterday said he regretted “any offence” caused by com
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