Ministers are facing calls to apologise and pay compensation to hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers after a damning review of the benefit system revealed some considered suicide to escape their debts.<\/p>\n
A report ordered by the government on the longstanding failures within the carer\u2019s allowance found the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) inflicted avoidable hardship and distress on carers and led to hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money being misused.<\/p>\n
The investigation said fault lay with \u201csystemic\u201d issues at the DWP and said carers should not be blamed for falling foul of what it said were complex and confusing benefit rules.<\/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
Liz Sayce, a disability rights expert and the author of the review, called the DWP\u2019s handling of the carer\u2019s allowance a \u201clongstanding injustice\u201d and said the scale of the problem, and the repeated failure to heed warnings or fix issues, was \u201centirely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
New DWP statistics published by the review show that 180,000 carers ran up overpayment debts of \u00a3300m between 2019 and 2025, despite promises to fix the system. \u201cThe DWP has failed to act systematically \u2026 and take actions that could have stemmed these overpayments,\u201d the review concluded.<\/p>\n
One in five carers who claimed carer\u2019s allowance and worked part-time were hit with an overpayment between 2019 and 2024, the report found. More than 852 carers who ran up overpayments were passed to the Crown Prosecution Service for criminal sanction.<\/p>\n
Sayce highlighted the human impact of the failures on carers, mainly women on low incomes who care for disabled children or elderly parents. Evidence found carers contemplated suicide, and felt shame and mental distress. Sayce said being caught in the system was like being \u201cat the whim of a faceless machine\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
She cited an unpaid carer 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
The review was triggered after a Guardian investigation<\/a> revealed how carers had been unfairly hit with draconian penalties of as much as \u00a320,000 after unknowingly running up overpayments of the carer\u2019s allowance.<\/p>\n Although the government has announced it will carry out a reassessment<\/a> of a decade of overpayments to identify instances where debts can be cancelled or reduced, politicians and carers on Tuesday demanded the DWP formally apologise and compensate carers whose lives were shattered by the scandal.<\/p>\n The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said: \u201cThe government and Conservative ministers should apologise to the tens of thousands of carers who were treated so disgracefully in the last parliament, having ignored all the evidence that this was a failing, broken system, out of step with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrea Tucker, a former unpaid carer who successfully had her \u00a34,600 overpayment quashed<\/a> by a social security tribunal earlier this year, said: \u201cI\u2019m concerned there has been no official apology. The stress and anxiety the DWP put many unpaid carers through warrants compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sayce suggested it was up to ministers to decide whether carers should be compensated noting that compensation schemes for the Windrush and Post Office scandals were \u201cslow to deliver and resource intensive\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDWP will need to consider the options and what is feasible here,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n The review made 40 recommendations to reform what Sayce described as an outdated and dysfunctional benefit \u2013 most of which have been accepted by the government. They included:<\/p>\n The writing off and refunding of potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of overpayments that were issued as a result of flawed and unclear DWP guidance.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n An end to the criminal prosecution for fraud of all but the most serious cases.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Ministers should consider a full review of carer\u2019s allowance, an outdated benefit that is \u201cever less fit for purpose\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Sayce paid tribute to the \u201cinvaluable\u201d role of carers, carers\u2019 charities, DWP whistleblowers, and journalists in bringing the carer\u2019s allowance scandal to the policy forefront.<\/p>\n\n