The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will reassess hundreds of thousands of carer's allowance cases after a damning official review found that unpaid carers were left with huge debts due to government failure and maladministration. The review, due to be published on Tuesday, was triggered by a year-long Guardian investigation revealing that carers faced penalties of up to £20,000, with some plunged into hardship or jailed.
Ministers have promised to cancel or reduce wrongly issued penalties, concluding that many resulted from official error rather than wilful rule-breaking. However, the government has stopped short of offering compensation to those affected. The review, led by disability policy expert Liz Sayce, considered compensation but did not include it in its published recommendations.
The stress, ill-health, and anxiety endured by carers emerged in Guardian articles over the past 20 months. Many reported harassment by DWP staff, and hundreds were convicted of benefit fraud. It remains unclear what will happen to those convicted due to official mistakes.
Welfare Secretary Pat McFadden said putting right past failures was essential to rebuild trust. Ministers have accepted most of the review's 40 recommendations, including reassessing all carer's allowance overpayments since 2015. The reassessment will focus on carers with fluctuating earnings who were penalised despite average earnings within allowed limits.
Under current rules, unpaid carers caring for at least 35 hours a week can receive £83.30 weekly if their part-time earnings do not exceed £196. Exceeding this threshold by even 1p requires repaying the entire week's allowance, plus a £50 penalty. The DWP failed to alert carers when they overstepped the limit, allowing overpayments to accumulate for years.
Carers UK welcomed the report as a 'big step forward', while Carers Trust's chief executive Kirsty McHugh said the DWP's guidance on overpayments was 'both wrong and confusing'. The failure to offer compensation has disappointed many carers, with one telling the Guardian: 'It should be more than just about cancelling or reducing some overpayments.'
