At least £357m in carer’s allowance paid out in error over past six years, charity finds

More than 262,000 overpayments totalling in excess of £325m have been clawed back from carers, according to the National Audit Office. Photograph: Westend61 GmbH/Alamy

At least £357m in carer’s allowance benefit was paid out in error over the past six years because of official failures, resulting in debt and misery being inflicted on tens of thousands of people.

The bulk of the figure relates to minor breaches of earnings rules by carers that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was alerted to but did not check, allowing carers to run up huge overpayments over months and years.