Health Secretary Andy Burnham has said the Disability Living Allowance will not be axed

Health Secretary Andy Burnham has ruled out scrapping a disability benefit paid to 2.5 million people to help fund a new National Care Service.

Mr Burnham said he had "categorically" rejected the option of ending Disability Living Allowance, which is worth up to £119 a week to disabled people aged under 65 and costs the Government around £6 billion a year.

But he left open the question of the future of Attendance Allowance, paid to over-65s who are physically or mentally disabled, saying that he was looking at ways to make the benefit "more progressive".

A leading cancer charity said it was "deeply concerned" that AA remained under threat. But Mr Burnham pledged that no-one in receipt of disability benefits would lose out from the reforms.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Labour's conference last month that the creation of a National Care Service would be a commitment in the party's election manifesto.

Details have yet to be finalised of how it will be funded, and a green paper published in July suggested that benefits like DLA and AA could be "integrated" into the care system, leading to concerns among the disabled community that they may be abolished.

But Mr Burnham told a conference in Harrogate that he wanted to "close down" controversy over DLA. He said: "We are still in a consultation period. No decisions have been made on funding options. We are still listening - about funding, about structures and about how to build a forward-looking system of care.

"One avenue I do want to close down, however, is the debate and controversy over Disability Living Allowance. We recognise that this is an important benefit for disabled people, and I can state categorically that we have now ruled out any suggestion that DLA for under-65s will be brought into the new National Care Service.

"This is because, whilst there will be increases in the numbers of disabled people of working age who need care, the majority of the people needing care in the future will be older people."

Duleep Allirajah, policy manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "Abolishing AA, as proposed in the Government's green paper, would leave many cancer patients over 65 unable to pay for the extra costs of disability, such as a special diet, higher fuel bills or travel to hospital."