Post by northwestman on May 16, 2024 21:19:10 GMT 1
This is an absolute disgrace.
www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/ministers-knew-about-carers-allowance-problems-three-years-ago-report-reveals
Ministers were warned three years ago that unpaid carers were being treated unfairly and forced to repay huge sums for minor benefit breaches, a long suppressed government report has revealed.
A Department for Work and Pensions document presented to politicians in 2021 detailed how carers – the majority of whom were on low incomes and spending 65 hours a week caring for loved ones – endured financial hardship, stress and anger after being heavily penalised for falling foul of strict carer’s allowance eligibility rules.
Ministers at the DWP sat on the report until this week when it was finally made public after repeated lobbying from campaigners and a series of Guardian reports into the carer’s allowance scandal.
Overpayments happen when a carer breaches a government-imposed cap which states they cannot earn more than £151 a week in a paid job while receiving the £81.90 allowance. Instead of asking carers to pay back the amount that exceeded the threshold, the DWP claws back the whole £81.90 for each week that was in breach.
This means a carer who earned £1 more than the £151 threshold for 52 weeks would typically have to pay back £4,258.80, rather than £52.
The problem is compounded by the DWP failing to act in a timely fashion when it receives electronic alerts that a carer’s income has potentially breached the earnings threshold, allowing carers to rack up thousands of pounds’ worth of overpayments over months and years.
www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/ministers-knew-about-carers-allowance-problems-three-years-ago-report-reveals
Ministers were warned three years ago that unpaid carers were being treated unfairly and forced to repay huge sums for minor benefit breaches, a long suppressed government report has revealed.
A Department for Work and Pensions document presented to politicians in 2021 detailed how carers – the majority of whom were on low incomes and spending 65 hours a week caring for loved ones – endured financial hardship, stress and anger after being heavily penalised for falling foul of strict carer’s allowance eligibility rules.
Ministers at the DWP sat on the report until this week when it was finally made public after repeated lobbying from campaigners and a series of Guardian reports into the carer’s allowance scandal.
Overpayments happen when a carer breaches a government-imposed cap which states they cannot earn more than £151 a week in a paid job while receiving the £81.90 allowance. Instead of asking carers to pay back the amount that exceeded the threshold, the DWP claws back the whole £81.90 for each week that was in breach.
This means a carer who earned £1 more than the £151 threshold for 52 weeks would typically have to pay back £4,258.80, rather than £52.
The problem is compounded by the DWP failing to act in a timely fashion when it receives electronic alerts that a carer’s income has potentially breached the earnings threshold, allowing carers to rack up thousands of pounds’ worth of overpayments over months and years.
