Companies responsible for the government's controversial employment scheme have neglected disabled jobseekers to focus on easier-to-help claimants, a report revealed today.

The public accounts committee analysed the performance of work programme providers and established that a whopping 90 per cent of employment and support allowance claimants across the country were yet to find work.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge said: "Evidence shows that differential payments have not stopped contractors from focusing on easier-to-help individuals and parking harder-to-help claimants, often those with a range of disabilities including mental health challenges.

"Data from work programme providers shows that they are, on average, spending less than half what they originally promised on these harder-to-help groups."

Companies such as Reed, Serco, G4S and A4E came under public scrutiny earlier in the year for placing people in precarious work or on zero-hours contracts.

Ms Hodge also shared the committee's concerns that the sanctions applied to benefit claimants has also been "unfair" and caused "significant financial hardship."

"Feedback from some constituents suggests that the number of sanctions has been increasing and that some providers have been recommending sanctions more than others," she added.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "The work programme has contributed to the largest drop in long-term unemployment in a generation and providers are paid by results, with more money for the hardest to reach - but only if they get those people back into lasting work."