There is a scene in The Simpsons in which the villainous Mr Burns enlists a team of monkeys to reproduce a Charles Dickens novel on the cheap. Hunched over a row of typewriters, the simians cannot get the job done without a range of bumbling typos.

I thought of this as I watched Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, on Monday set out so-called cost-saving changes to the flagship disability benefit, personal independence payment (Pip), in what he described as “probably the most fundamental reforms in a generation”.

At a time when the NHS is crumbling, councils are going bankrupt and infrastructure is on its knees, listening to the Conservative party pledge to fix the social security system feels like the equivalent of trusting a monkey to win the Nobel prize for literature.

The plans, which will be consulted on over the coming months, centre on two main ideas. First, there’s a suggestion that some people with mental health conditions should not necessarily receive regular benefits and could receive treatment instead, from talking therapies and social care packages to respite care.

Second, there is a desire to “move away from a fixed cash benefit system”. Reports suggest this could mean disabled people having to provide receipts for the extra costs associated with their disability in order to claim back money from the state, or being awarded vouchers instead of cash.........

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