Yet the minister was not saying that the disabled should receive less take-home pay or that they were in any way "worth less" as humans. As Sam Bowman of the Adam Smith Institute pointed out, he was not placing "moral value on people with severe disabilities or learning difficulties", only stating that "the value of a person's labour is equivalent to what others will pay them for a given amount of time".

There are good economic arguments for top-ups for the disabled and Labour actually suggested something similar in 2003, as well as reasons against. Either way the minister should not only be permitted to think aloud but encouraged to do so.