Under the proposals, not only would ministers be able to order a hearing to be conducted in secret, but the proceedings would also deny claimants access to government evidence or witnesses – leaving them effectively untested in court.
After the cuts were trailed on Friday, a Labour analysis found it would deny 200,000 claimants access to the benefit worth almost £3,000 a year, with a further 400,000 seeing their entitlements reduced.
In some ways, especially for those who fall demographically on either side of the prime of life, every day seems to be more and more about the money, with competition accelerating among worthy claimants for access to limited resources.
This would mean fresh claimants could access to information relating to the News of the World's phone-hacking activity already produced on discovery in earlier cases, without incurring the costs associated with a full action.
The government's push for claimants to access benefits online is also questioned by some groups.
Welfare reform minister Lord Freud said: "We've always been clear that Universal Credit will be simple and easy for claimants to access and we will ensure that vulnerable people get the support they need to make a claim and budget their finances.
But its critics have questioned whether its computer network will be able to cope with millions of claims and whether all claimants have internet access to use it.
In addition, local authorities that decide to restrict the tax demand to 8.5% for the poorest claimants will get access to a £100m transitional fund.
In Canada, refugee claimants are provided access to healthcare services while their claim is determined.
It added that it would work with Atos and stakeholder groups to improve the way it informed claimants about the process and its questionnaires, and would ensure that assessors made clear they did not have access to claimants' medical notes.
