\n<\/p>\n
Repeated failures by Tory ministers and top welfare officials pushed hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers into debt and distress, and led to hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money being wasted, a devastating review has concluded.<\/p>\n
The independent review of carer\u2019s allowance benefit overpayments identified \u201csystemic issues\u201d at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and said carers could not be blamed for falling foul of unclear and confusing benefit rules.<\/p>\n
The review was triggered after a Guardian investigation revealed how carers had been hit with draconian penalties of as much as \u00a320,000 after unwittingly and unfairly running up overpayments of the carer\u2019s allowance.<\/p>\n
Liz Sayce, the disability rights expert and author of the review, said problems with carer\u2019s allowance led to injustice and poor use of public money and had affected carers\u2019 health, finances and careers. She blamed repeated failures by top DWP officials over a decade to fix the problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverpayments over many years at this scale and impact, with missed opportunities to resolve them, are entirely unacceptable. They are an inappropriate use of taxpayers\u2019 money, which has involved using public money for a purpose not intended, and then incurring further cost to attempt to recover it,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe prevalence of overpayment related to earnings has been caused not by widespread individual error by carers in reporting their earnings but by systemic issues preventing them from fulfilling their responsibility to report.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ministers have announced hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers who ran up overpayments as a result of unsafe decisions will have their cases reassessed and in many cases their debts cancelled or reduced. It described the scandal as a \u201cmess inherited from the previous government\u201d.<\/p>\n
But there is disappointment from many carers that the review did not recommend compensation for those whose lives were turned upside down and health destroyed after being hit with massive overpayments they were unaware they had incurred.<\/p>\n
The review highlights the stress, shame and humiliation experienced by carers caught up in the system, and their treatment at the hands of DWP staff that \u201cmade them feel degraded, like a criminal or cheat trying to game the system\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sayce added: \u201cThis shame is experienced as the polar opposite of the recognition carer\u2019s allowance aims to offer to unpaid carers who are regularly described by the government as \u2018unsung heroes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The review highlights how the flawed \u201ccliff edge\u201d design of carer\u2019s allowance penalties resulted in carers rapidly and unwittingly building up big overpayments. Sayce urged \u201cquick, imaginative and fair solutions\u201d to the cliff edge problem.<\/p>\n
Unpaid carers who look after loved ones for at least 35 hours a week are entitled to \u00a383.30 a week carer\u2019s allowance, as long as their weekly earnings from part-time jobs do not exceed \u00a3196. But if they exceed this limit, even by as little as 1p, they must repay that entire week\u2019s carer\u2019s allowance.<\/p>\n
Under the \u201ccliff edge\u201d earnings rules, this means someone who oversteps the threshold by as little as 1p a week for a year must repay not 52p but \u00a34,331.60, plus a \u00a350 civil penalty.<\/p>\n
Top officials and previous government ministers are criticised for a failure to \u201cgrip\u201d the problem of overpayments. \u201cThe \u2026 DWP has failed to demonstrate the ministerial and senior focus needed to resolve these persistent injustices and reform carer\u2019s allowance to implement its core purposes in the modern world,\u201d the review said.<\/p>\n
Problems with changes introduced by DWP in 2020 to modify the way carers were allowed to average their earnings from part-time jobs to avoid overpayments were also highlighted. These changes, ostensibly to make the system clear for claimants, were in effect unlawful and resulted in more carers falling foul of the system.<\/p>\n
While carers were expected by DWP to report changes to their circumstances, such as if they earned more than earnings limits, confusing rules meant they \u201chave no way of knowing exactly what they need to report and when\u201d, the review found.<\/p>\n
Sayce cited an unpaid carer who gave evidence to the review who described the predicament faced by carers trying to navigate the carer\u2019s allowance system as \u201clike playing a game where only one side knows the rules\u201d.<\/p>\n
She paid tribute to the \u201cinvaluable\u201d role of carers, carer\u2019s charities, DWP whistleblowers, and journalists in bringing what had become known as the carer\u2019s allowance scandal to the policy forefront.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this report will lead to concerted, accountable action to resolve the persistent \u2013 and repeatedly reported \u2013 problem of overpayment of carer\u2019s allowance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Repeated failures by Tory ministers and top welfare officials pushed hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers into debt and distress, and led to hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money being wasted, a devastating review has concluded. The independent review of carer\u2019s allowance benefit overpayments identified \u201csystemic issues\u201d at the Department for Work and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[4388,4387,187,4643,189,4644,321,2969,1085,2268,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-35150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-allowance","9":"tag-carers","10":"tag-crisis","11":"tag-failures","12":"tag-finds","13":"tag-led","14":"tag-ministers","15":"tag-officials","16":"tag-review","17":"tag-tory","18":"tag-welfare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}