More than 9,000 unpaid carers looking after ill and disabled loved ones have become the latest to be hit with carer’s allowance overpayment debts in the past year, prompting calls for ministers to suspend the controversial practice.
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.”
The letter is signed by 108 charities and campaign groups, including Carers UK, Carers Trust, Age UK, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Disability Rights UK, and scores of local grassroots carer organisations from across the UK.
Karina Moon, an unpaid carer who is paying back £11,000 after an unwitting earnings breach that amounted to about £3 a week, said it was “disgusting” the government was still pursuing vulnerable people despite the well-known problems with the system.
“The fact that they’re still penalising people and waiting for people to fall off the cliff edge, instead of stopping carer’s allowance until the DWP can investigate, is just disgusting,” she said.
Moon, 64, is paying back £60 a month after being hit with the £11,000 bill when the DWP deemed that travelling to her part-time job at Tesco was not an allowable expense.
She said the paltry rate of carer’s allowance – currently £81.90 a week – came to less than £1 an hour for her own round-the-clock work.
“My daytime caring duties amount to 117 hours a week of full-on care … If I was to put my daughter into full-time care the government would have to pay someone to look after her 24/7 – and I think they’d pay them a damn sight more than £1 an hour. It’s sickening.”
The DWP was approached for comment.
