One of the most senior civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has placed the blame for the carer’s allowance benefits crisis on victims, many of who have been left with life-changing debts.

In an internal blogpost written for Whitehall colleagues, Neil Couling, the director general of DWP services, said individual failings by carers were “at the heart” of the issue that has been likened to the Post Office Horizon scandal.

The post, which was removed after the Guardian made inquiries about its content, has been met with outcry by charities and politicians.

An independent review into the scandal last month found that longstanding and “unacceptable” systemic DWP leadership problems and poor benefit design were at the root of the failure, which it said could not be

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