Thousands of sick and disabled people have been pressurised to find work because of changes to the benefits system, according to a report.

Citizens Advice Scotland is now calling for an independent review of the new system of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

This replaced incapacity benefit and income support in October 2008 but the report, Unfit For Purpose, finds that people with conditions such as mulitiple sclerosis and terminal cancer are being judged fit for work.

CAS spokesman Matt Lancashire said today: "It was clear from the outset that the system was deeply flawed, and administrative problems have plagued its application throughout.

"As a result, many thousands of seriously sick and disabled people in Scotland have been put under pressure to find work or lose their benefit.

"Every CAB in Scotland has reported such cases to us, including clients who are suffering from conditions like Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer, bi-polar disorder, heart failure, strokes, severe depression and agoraphobia.

"The people we are talking about are not scroungers or benefit cheats, they are people who have suffered the tragic bad luck of becoming genuinely too ill to work."

The report report finds that ESA was designed so that a work-capability assessment would judge more people fit for work than the previous assessment system.

Department of Work and Pensions statistics show that the actual rate of extra claimants being found fit for work under the new assessment is 68%, the report said, 31% higher than before and 18% higher than ministers intended.

Most recent data show that 50,000 appeals against decisions have been lodged in the first year of the new system.

The report reads: "Scottish bureaux have reported a massive workload helping clients with ESA appeals, which places increased pressure on already very stretched CAB resources."

The ESAs do not accept "basic medical evidence", such as reports from GPs, he said.

"Our conclusion is that it has been found to be seriously flawed and is heaping unnecessary misery on thousands of the most vulnerable people in Scotland.

"We are calling for a full, independent and urgent review of the way this benefit operates."