‘DWP threatened to send in bailiffs’: the unpaid carers told to repay benefit

Elizabeth Tait and her son Oliver. She says the carer’s allowance system ‘makes no sense at all’. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

A report by Carers UK has found teachers, NHS staff and other key workers who balance part-time work with caring for loved ones are quitting their jobs to avoid being hit with huge cash penalties for breaching carer’s allowance rules. We speak to people affected by the crisis.

‘I felt like a criminal’: Elizabeth Tait, 59, Thames Ditton, Surrey