A parliamentary committee chair has accused a top welfare official of fostering a "culture of complacency" at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The criticism follows a scandal where unpaid carers were hit with massive debts after the DWP overpaid them due to its own administrative failures.

The chair argued that the department consistently fails to look out for vulnerable people and has been far too slow to fix its mistakes. She said she is skeptical about recent promises to solve the issues, pointing to an internal culture that tends to blame claimants for the department's errors. The DWP has been asked to provide a response.