A senior panel of MPs has accused the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of letting down some of the most vulnerable people in society through work assessment tests for disabled people.

In a withering attack, chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Margaret Hodge, blasted the department's implementation of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) as ‘nothing short of a fiasco'.

In a report issued 20 June, the PAC found the failure to run pilots prior to the launch meant the most basis assumptions, such as how long assessments would take, and how many claimants would need face-to-face consultations were never tested, and subsequently proved wrong.