Friday, March 21, 2025
Carers remain forgotten in government's welfare overhaul
The paper says that while the government has promised to tackle the carer’s allowance scandal and launched a review, the latest figures show carers continue to be unwittingly caught by the system, landing them with debts often running into thousands of pounds:
In total, 144,000 carers now have outstanding repayments after falling foul of drastic “cliff-edge” rules limiting the amount they can earn from part-time jobs while still claiming carer’s allowance benefit.
An ongoing Guardian investigation has revealed how draconian and rigidly enforced rules, coupled with a failure by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to notify carers of overpayment, have meant carers have run up debts of up to £20,000, causing public outrage and leading to comparisons with the Post Office scandal.
Carer’s allowance earnings rules mean a carer who earned £1 more than the £151 weekly threshold for 52 weeks would have to pay back not £52 but £4,258.80. Those with overpayment debts over £5,000 also face potential criminal prosecution. More than 250 carers have come into scope for prosecution since April.
Carer charities have urged ministers in a letter to halt the creation of new overpayment debts until the independent review of carer’s allowance has concluded, and to write off existing debts where DWP failures have been a contributory factor.
The letter says: “While we await the independent review’s findings, we believe that the government could be doing more to reduce the hardship unpaid carers are facing because of a fundamentally unfair system. Unless mitigating measures are implemented now, unpaid carers will continue to be affected by this scandal.”
It adds: “Many [carers] already struggle financially, and these debts impact entire households, including children and disabled family members … Carers make an invaluable contribution to society. We want the system to reflect their worth, rather than leaving them in debt for trying to balance paid work and unpaid care.”
Why was this not sorted out when the government announced its changes to the welfare system a few days ago? Freezing this anomolous penalty while the review does it work would have been relatively easy to do. Instead ministers continue to penalise carers.
