A sickness benefit claimant was ordered back to work because they were able to make a sandwich, a Brighton and Hove welfare group has claimed.

The warning came as it was revealed 700 benefits claimants were “wrongly assessed” as being able to work in Brighton and Hove.

Some 54% of appeals against fit-for-work decisions were successful compared to 37% nationally, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The assessments were for the new Employment Support Allowance (ESA) carried out by contractor Atos Healthcare for the DWP between 2009 and 2012.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, who requested the figures in Parliament, said: “It’s a scandal that it’s harder to get help you’re legally entitled to in Brighton and Hove than elsewhere.

“I raised this issue with the DWP two years ago yet two years on, very high numbers of people in Brighton and Hove are still being wrongly assessed.

“People are still coming to me to express real anxiety about Atos and their poor assessments.”

Out of 1,300 claimants of ESA appealing their work assessments, about 700 were upheld.

Giuseppina Salamone, welfare rights adviser at Brighton and Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre, blamed “superficial” medical examinations and “spurious” observations by Atos.

She said: “They don’t contact GPs for the medical evidence. If they did lots of those appeals would be unnecessary.

“I’ve had clients who have been ruled fit for work just because they can make a sandwich. It doesn’t prove they can work. They misuse lots of small facts that don’t mean much.”

A spokeswoman for Atos Healthcare said: “It is simply wrong to say that Atos Healthcare are the reason for successful appeals.

“We have seen over one million people face to face in the last year on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions and endeavour to treat everyone with professionalism and compassion.”

A spokesman for the DWP said decisions were often overturned because medical evidence was available at appeal that wasn’t available at the assessments.