Basic living allowances for people with disabilities cost the Government £12 billion a year, according to the Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller.

“That’s more than the transport bill for the entire country,” said the Minister, who is at the centre of controversial reforms to non means-tested benefits for the disabled.

Under the Welfare Reform Bill – the biggest welfare shake-up in more than 60 years – the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will be replaced with Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) from 2013, and claimants will be reassessed.

The Government says the changes are overdue and will simplify a complex system, but disability campaigners – including the 5,000 who protested in London this month – claim many disabled people will lose benefits and independence.

Talking to the Telegraph & Argus, Mrs Miller said there had been more than 5,500 responses to a national consultation on proposed reforms, with many people in favour of a review of the system, and the introduction of a more straightforward procedure.

She said the DLA had barely been altered since its introduction in 1992, and is inconsistent in the ways it supports people.

“There are more people getting a higher rate of DLA who are drug addicts and alcoholics than there are people affected by blindness. That’s a broken system,” said Mrs Miller.

Campaigners fear claimants will have to undergo a potentially confusing and unfair new assessment procedure.

Kevin Baldwin, chief executive of Keighley and District Association for the Blind, said: “I help blind and partially-sighted people with form-filling, but under new regulations they’ll go to an assessor, a civil servant, who doesn’t know them or their circumstances.

“Assessment isn’t straightforward – sometimes you have to tease information out. Under a blanket assessment it will be yes/no answers and box-ticking. If the right information isn’t put down, people won’t qualify.

“Yesterday I attended an assessment appeal with someone who was asked if she could use a bathroom. Initially she said yes, then added that she puts toothpaste on the wrong way, because of sight problems. She needed help – but this wasn’t immediately apparent.”

Ursula Wood, from Bradford People First, supporting people with learning disabilities, said: “People will take inappropriate tests and may have difficulty communicating their needs.”

But Mrs Miller said the new assessment procedure would be less complex.

“With DLA, there’s a self-assessment form that’s difficult to fill in,” she said. “I met someone who’d been on a four-day course to learn how to do it – that can’t be a good system.

“Thousands of people are being overpaid DLA. The current system isn’t picking up on changes in condition, leaving some people at risk of not receiving the right support while others may claim for a benefit they’re no longer entitled to.

“Assessments for PIPs will be more responsive to needs of people with sensory impairments, learning difficulties and the autistic spectrum.

“We are working with disabled people and organisations and healthcare experts to shape the new process.

“Assessments will be face-to-face, so people will no longer have to pore over the many pages of DLA forms, and they can take someone along. We’re conscious that this process may be difficult for someone without a carer or family member present. We have also considered who will undertake assessments.”

Until April, the higher mobility component of DLA was rarely awarded to blind people because they were considered able to walk outside. This has now been changed, but Mr Baldwin said: “It has taken four years for them to qualify for higher rate mobility. Now they’re back to square one.

“I accept there are people abusing the DLA system, and I see the point in a review, but why scrap the whole thing? It’s about saving money. These people are vulnerable, they’re a soft target.”

Mrs Miller said PIPs would create a clearer benefit system.

“The current system doesn’t pick up on problems blind people have with mobility. It’s not just about putting one foot in front of another, it’s about individual mobility needs. We overcome this in the new assessment,” she said.

“PPI does what it says on the tin. It’s about assessing people’s needs for independent living. We’ll continue to work with disabled people and organisations on shaping the new system.”