‘It’s like the Post Office scandal’: victims of carer’s allowance crisis speak out

Vivienne Groom, pictured with her partner Geoff, was accused of wrongly claiming £17,000 of carer’s allowance. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Vivienne Groom had never been inside the dock of a criminal court until she stood, sobbing and shaking, before a judge last year.

She was accused by the government of unlawfully claiming nearly £17,000 in carer’s allowance while she juggled a minimum wage supermarket job with being the sole carer for her dying mother.