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Thousands of people with progressive diseases and mental illness have lost their disability benefits in a cruel Tory cut.

Charities sounded the alarm tonight over a "devastating" shake-up which has axed or reduced 230,000 people's Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

The fund is designed to help disabled people live independently and is replacing the old Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

Yet around 110,000 DLA claimants who were reassessed for the new benefit - 21% of the total - have been rejected since PIP launched in 2013.

Another 121,000 - 23% of those reassessed - were given PIP but at a lower rate than their previous benefit.

Overall, 40% saw their payments rise and 12% saw no change.

The figures, covering April 2013 to October 2016 and compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), were slipped out without fanfare on the government's website today.

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

Those who lost out include many with progressive diseases - around 450 Parkinson's sufferers, 3,069 people with multiple sclerosis and 4,450 suffering unspecified 'malignant diseases'.

Others with progressive conditions who saw benefits axed or reduced were around 294 cystic fibrosis sufferers, 36 people with motor neurone disease and 1,617 people classed as "terminally ill".

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said those in the last group were found to no longer be "terminally ill" because they were expected to live beyond six months.

Mental health charity Mind warned 74,580 former DLA claimants with four key psychiatric disorders lost some or all of their benefits - 55% of all those who were reassessed.

Policy manager Vicki Nash said the figures were a "a huge cause for concern", adding: "Hundreds of thousands of people with mental health problems rely on DLA and PIP to help them get the support they need to stay well.

(Image: Getty)

"Often we hear from people with mental health problems who tell us that they dread the face-to-face assessments which rarely take into account their mental health."

PIP was denied or cut back for around 2,525 blind people, 570 people with AIDS, 128 haemophiliacs and 19 double amputees.

Also hit were around 20,050 people with back pain, 34,545 with arthritis, 8,084 with chronic pain syndromes and 10,725 with learning difficulties.

All figures are approximate because the DWP rounded the total number of claims for each condition to the nearest hundred.

The data came despite ministers scrapping £4.4bn in planned PIP cuts that prompted Tory welfare chief Iain Duncan Smith to resign.

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Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Debbie Abrahams said: "These figures clearly demonstrate how the government is using cuts to disabled people’s support to pay for its failed austerity agenda.

"What these statistics don’t show is that 65% of these assessment decisions are being overturned at appeal."

Phil Reynolds, of Parkinson's UK, warned the system has had a "devastating impact" on people's everyday lives.

He added: "PIP was created to increase people’s independence, but people with Parkinson's are being robbed of it by a system which is rigged against them.

"We continue to hear the most appalling stories of people with Parkinson’s who have been well supported on DLA but who are now experiencing cuts in payments and having to return much needed Motability vehicles."

A DWP spokeswoman stressed DLA and PIP were different benefits and 34% of those eligible received the highest possible payment.

She said: "DLA was in urgent need of reform and many DLA claimants had not undergone any kind of assessment of their needs for several years.

"PIP is a better – and fairer – system designed to focus support on those experiencing the greatest barriers to living independently. In all cases, the outcome is based on individual circumstances and the needs arising as a result.”