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The Tory government has blown almost £40million in one year fighting to block benefits from sick and disabled people, it emerged today.

The huge sum of money was spent contesting thousands of appeals by people who say they were wrongly denied support.

Campaigners say benefit tests, which are outsourced to private firms, are flawed and the Disability News Service has gathered 200 cases of alleged "dishonesty" by officials.

Hundreds of thousands of people have appealed since the launch of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Only around a a fifth of initial appeals - which the government considers internally - succeed.

But when claimants then go to an independent tribunal this figure rises to 47% for ESA and 61% for PIP.

(Image: Rex Features)

Now figures published by The Independent show the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spent £22m processing initial appeals in 2016.

The department then spent another £17m on tribunal costs in the same year, it was reported.

Commons Work and Pensions Committee chairman Frank Field, a Labour MP, said the spending was "appalling" and raised fears over the high appeal rate.

He added: "There is a clear incentive here for the Department: by doubling down on the quality of the initial assessment, it would save itself tens of millions of pounds each year.

"But the country as a whole also has a stake in improving this initial assessment: that is to prevent the injustice of human suffering, reported by food banks to be on an industrial scale, among some of our most vulnerable citizens who are on the brink of destitution.

(Image: John Stillwell/PA Wire)

"Clearly something has to change, otherwise this injustice will continue indefinitely."

A DWP spokesman said: "Only a small proportion of all ESA and PIP decisions are overturned at appeal - just 3% of PIP and 4% of ESA.

"In the majority of successful appeals, decisions are overturned because people have submitted more oral or written evidence."