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Benefits managers have been caught on tape making horrifying comments about claimants.

One advocated blowing them up with a grenade, another accused them of getting money for nothing while the disabled were accused of “faking it.”

In one disturbing taped conversation a manager says: “The police sometimes have sting operations where they gather people together.

"We should nominate one person to throw a grenade in.”

Another reveals a case manager railing at claimants, who can be out of work because of ill health.

They rant: “It does my head in. They’re getting something for nowt, they don’t really have to do a great deal to get it. And they still whinge.”

Another says they “have absolutely no time” for claimants with depression and anxiety.

(Image: Getty)

A regular caller with four children, including one who is severely disabled, is branded a **** after a call.

One manager asks: “Has she got a disabled child?” before another says: “She’s not disabled. She acts it.”

Benefits charities were yesterday shocked at the tapes, passed to the Sunday Mirror by a whistleblower.

Jamie Grier, of benefits support charity Turn2us, said: “Stigmatising people experiencing a financial crisis is divisive and wrong.”

The Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Tim Farron added: “This kind of language and behaviour is nothing short of heartless.

(Image: Getty)

“The Conservatives have created a toxic environment stemming from social security cuts that have left thousands unable to afford the basics.”

Department for Work and Pensions Staff were recorded making the slurs working at a call centre in the Midlands.

They complained of juggling 700 cases each and said hated Universal Credit is a nightmare to grasp.

(Image: PA)

One confesses: “I don’t know what I’m doing half the bloody time.”

UC combines existing benefits to “simplify” them, but has been slammed after suicides following errors or withheld payments.

Our whistleblower said: “These people hold claimants with thinly-veiled contempt.

"They become so ground down by the scale of the job they give up being nice. I’ve seen them trying to outdo the other in all the mean things they say.”

The Sunday Mirror is not publishing the recordings to protect the anonymity of the whistleblower, who fears reprisals from the DWP if their identity is discovered.

The DWP said: “The Sunday Mirror has not provided us with the recording, or any further details. We are therefore at this stage unable to verify the provenance of this recording.

“We are however deeply concerned by the allegations, and are taking them seriously.

"We will urgently investigate this matter, so far as we can with the limited information we have.

"Where wrongdoing has been identified, we will take appropriate disciplinary action.”