As you may have seen, there has been significant media attention regarding the issue of Carer’s Allowance overpayments over the past week or so, including from the Guardian, BBC, Daily Mail, the Mirror, and the Big Issue.
Carer’s Allowance overpayments currently affect 145,000 unpaid carers, with around 12,000 of these cases being for over £5,000. A harsh earnings limit for the benefit, as well as poor systems by DWP in managing potential cases of overpayments, have resulted in the large number of cases as well as significant numbers of very large overpayment debts for carers.
Despite an investigation in 2019 into Carer’s Allowance overpayments by the National Audit Office, and a commitment by the government to implement a new strategy aimed at “stopping overpayments occurring in the first place”, the number of overpayments over the last 5 years has not reduced.
Carers UK has long called for the way Carer’s Allowance is administered to be reformed, to ensure that fewer cases of overpayment occur and to prevent overpayments from building up to such high levels, as these can have devastating consequences for carers and often occur without carers being aware. Carers UK would also like to see higher debts written off as these should have been acted on much sooner and should have never been allowed to get to such high levels.
Carers UK are now urging the Government to invest more in Carer’s Allowance systems and processing to alleviate acute distress and financial hardship that this issue causes, as well as positively reforming the level and eligibility of Carer’s Allowance.
Building a dossier of carers’ experiences of overpayments
To ensure it has the evidence it needs to argue for changes to be urgently made by the Government, Carers UK are asking carers to share their experiences of dealing with overpayments with it so that it can put together a dossier of carers’ experiences. Once Carers UK has this evidence, it will anonymise it before sharing it with the Government and senior parliamentarians to demonstrate the personal cost to many families and individuals who are providing care.
Complete the survey
Please complete the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CAoverpayment. Please also share the survey with carers you are in contact with.
Thank you in advance for your support. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact policy@carersuk.org or, to find out more about the campaign, please visit: https://www.carersuk.org/press-releases/support-for-carers-uks-carers-allowance-overpayments-campaign/
