DWP warns 138,000 people who 'didn't know' to pay back £251m in incorrect benefits

Under the current rules, unpaid carers who provide care for someone for more than 35 hours a week are entitled to receive the Carer's Allowance.

However, they are only eligible if they earn less than £151 per week after tax.

If they start earning more than this amount following a change in circumstances - such as working overtime or a modest pay rise - they are no longer eligible for the benefit and will have to repay any allowance received in full.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said it was "progressing an enhanced notification strategy" to alert carers as many are left unaware when they exceed the weekly earnings limit.

The average DWP payment error amounts to £1900, but this figure includes everything from a single error, costing a carer the weekly £81.90 benefit, to years' worth of errors that have ended up costing people their homes.

A DWP research report, written in 2021 but only published this week, said three per cent of their sample of claimants had received an overpayment of carer's allowance.

The chairman of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, Sir Stephen Timms, said the government had "allowed" many unpaid carers to build up "unmanageable levels of debt", having known about the issue for years."

The report, 'Experience of claiming and receiving Carer’s Allowance', included a series of case studies with affected carers saying they were not informed at the time of the overpayments, with some not having the problem explained to them and seeing their benefit payments cut or stopped entirely.

One carer said in the report: "[Our UC] was reduced by £90, and he had to send a message to his journal asking because nobody could explain it over the phone. Then he received a message back saying it was overpayment on the carer's side, so that was quite annoying that we just found out when we were due money."

Another claimant was angered when he was treated like a fraudster and was not listened to.

He said: "I fought hammer and nail on it. I felt it was a real victimisation. They don't think... It's like you're dealing with a computer, not a person.

"I ended up with a big overpayment, but it totally wasn't my fault. It's like they don't believe you."

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• DWP says bank account monitoring test found 60,000 benefit claimants were breaching rules
• Pensioners missing out on £470m due to National Insurance error
• Universal Credit claims soar but DWP benefits ‘crackdown’ could boost economy

A DWP spokesperson said: "The total amount of carer's allowance overpayments includes historical debts which the department is seeking to recover.

"In comparison, carer's allowance expenditure is forecast to be £4.2billion this year alone.

"We are also progressing an enhanced notification strategy as part of our ongoing commitment to customer engagement, which will help ensure customers fulfil their obligations to inform DWP when changes in their circumstances have occurred, building on existing communications."

Sir Stephen said: "The DWP must now move without delay to get a grip of the problem and ensure carers are no longer subjected to the distress that such overpayments can cause.

"On top of the problems with overpayments, we have heard how the rate of carer's allowance leaves many struggling to make ends meet.

"The Government should make sure that carers who carry out their tasks without reward are made to feel valued by ensuring that the payment properly reflects living costs."