MILLIONS of people who depend on benefits to survive were purged from the welfare roll due to Tory sanctions last year, a parliamentary report found yesterday.

Nearly 1.5 million claimants were dropped off the roll in 2015 — and the government didn’t even try to find out why, the work and pensions committee found in its damning report.

The MP found that while some missing applicants might be in jail or have moved abroad, a disturbingly high number are victims of benefit sanctions.

Committee chairman Frank Field said sanctions on this scale were “unknown since the second world war” and left many “exposed to destitution.”

Mr Field said: “The number of sanctions was halved in the year leading up to the 2015 election, but it still remained at half a million.

“The operation of sanctions on this scale makes for a most significant change in the social security system as it has existed in the post-war period.

“A number of people — we know not how large a number — are being totally disconnected from both work and welfare and risk being exposed to destitution.

“Justice calls for a major survey of what happens to the hundreds of thousands of people thrown off the welfare rolls each year through the sanctioning process.

“It is unacceptable, not only for this government but for its predecessor and those who will follow, to take away benefits from a mass of people each year and not trouble themselves with how this army of people survive.

“For that is what is happening under the government’s sanctions policy.

“The ability to track the well-being of the whole population is now a part of being a grown up government, let alone a ‘One Nation’ government.”

In the 2014/15 financial year alone, half a million people were hit by penalties introduced by the Tories under new, punitive welfare rulings.

The report will be officially published on Monday by think tank Civitas, calling for the government to immediately carry out a survey on the expelled claimants.

It also advises the Department for Work and Pensions to test out grace periods for vulnerable claimants facing acute difficulties or transition from welfare conditions.

However, it also backs a trial yellow card early warning system for claimants facing sanctions, which disabled campaigners believe will put unfair pressure on civil servants and applicants.

Disabled rights activists said they were particularly worried over the stats as disabled people have borne the brunt of benefit sanctions.

Disabled People Against Cuts co-founder Linda Burnip told the Star: “The number of people sanctioned and left without any money for as long as possibly three years continues to rise and those who find the social security system the most difficult to navigate are disproportionately punished by this.

The yellow card system that the government plan to pilot shortly means medically unqualified jobcentre staff will have to decide which social security claimants require some minimal protection.

“This is unfair on both claimants and workers, who at the end of the day may find themselves responsible for having caused someone’s death by an error of judgement.

“It really is time for jobcentre staff to refuse to continue to implement the barbarous practices of this Tory government.”

A DWP spokesman said:

“There is no basis to these claims. People leave the benefits system for many reasons, including when they go to work. It’s extremely unlikely anyone would leave the benefit system because of a sanction.”