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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Patrick Butler Social policy editor

Inertia, denial and failure: timeline of the UK carer’s allowance scandal

DWP Peter Schofield
Sad woman looking out of window.
Thousands of unpaid carers suffered – and continue to suffer – as a result of the allowance scandal and millions of pounds taxpayers’ money has been wasted. Photograph: Rome Lifestyle/Alamy

Although the carer’s allowance scandal caught the public attention in 2024, it has bubbled away under the radar for years, during which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has variously denied there was a problem, then promised to fix the problem, then ignored it again, then once again promised to fix it.

Hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers suffered – and continue to suffer – unnecessarily as a result and hundreds of millions of pounds taxpayers’ money has been wasted.

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