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  In an interview with today's Daily Telegraph, the Work and Pensions Secretary says that he is determined to introduce radical reforms to disability benefits which will see more than two million claimants reassessed in the next four years.
  
  Iain Duncan Smith says that the number of claimants has risen by 30 percent in recent years "rising well ahead of any other gauge you might make about illness, sickness, disability". Losing a limb should not automatically entitle people to a pay-out, he suggests.
  
  The cost of disability living allowance, which is intended to help people meet the extra costs of mobility and care associated with their conditions, now outstrips unemployment benefit and will soon be £13 billion annually.
  
  Under the reform plans, the existing benefit will be replaced with a simpler "more focused" allowance and only those medically assessed to be in genuine need of support will continue to qualify.
  
  An official impact assessment of the plans, released this month, reveals the scheme will cut benefit payments by £2.24 billion annually - and lead to about 500,000 fewer claimants.

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