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Unbelievable questions asked by disability benefit assessors have been revealed after thousands of people wrote to MPs about their experiences.

The questions highlight a series of shocking mistakes made by the firms - hired by the Department of Work and Pensions - behind interviews for benefit assessments designed to help people with disabilities or a long-term illness.

The Commons Work and Pensions Committee has warned that even if most assessments are carried out correctly, the number of errors has destroyed confidence in the system.

Here are some of the mistakes:

Amazing ignorance

The Down’s Syndrome Association reports parents of children with the condition were asked questions including: “How long have they had Down’s syndrome for? When did they catch Down’s syndrome? When were you diagnosed with Down’s syndrome?”

Why aren’t you dead?

A claimant who was suicidal was asked: “And why didn’t you succeed? Why did you fail?”

Name withheld

Likes to talk to people in the street

“I was attacked with a deadly weapon only a short time before my assessment. The man threatened my life, on a walk with my dog. So the assessor wrote that I like to talk to people on my walk.”

Katherine

The mysterious dog

“Apparently I walk my dog daily, which was baffling because I can barely walk and I do not have a dog!”

Nikki

(Image: Brand X/Getty)

Can’t travel alone, and that’s fine

“The report was full of inconsistencies. For example, the assessor correctly wrote that I cannot use public transport alone, I cannot visit unfamiliar places alone, and I require prompting to visit familiar places alone. However, they then proceeded to state that I therefore needed no assistance with mobility, and scored me zero points. This doesn’t even make logical sense!”

Maddy

Just not true

“The assessor claimed in the report to have completed an extensive examination of me during the assessment. She listed a breakdown of her observations regarding the movement of all my limbs and joints. In reality though my assessment was only fifteen minutes long and the assessor didn’t examine me at all.”

Sarah

Assessor thinks they understand mental illness when they don’t

One claimant suffered from obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). In some cases, this can mean people wash their hands obsessively - but anyone with expert knowledge would know the condition can manifest itself in all sorts of ways that have nothing to do with washing.

“We reached a point where we were discussing my personal care and I pointed out that I hadn’t taken a shower in months. The nurse reacted strongly to this and said, ‘So how does your OCD affect you then?’. She gave me a look as if to suggest I had been caught out lying, claiming to have OCD while making statements to the contrary.”

“...to have OCD you don’t have to be washing your hands a thousand times a day and cleaning lampshades with a wet wipe. My OCD takes the form of a ritual where I have to hold my fingertips together at many points throughout the day in the belief that this will prevent a nuclear war. These type of rituals and compulsive thoughts are fairly standard with OCD.”

Name withheld