Unpaid carers being left with crippling debts and threatened with prosecution after Department for Work and Pensions overpayments is “unforgivable” and would be investigated by a Labour government, the shadow work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, told the Guardian.
Speaking on a visit to meet pensioners in the Labour target seat of Thurrock in Essex, Kendall urged voters who felt the party was not being bold enough to view the party’s promises as just the steps in a 10-year plan.
Kendall said she was horrified by revelations unearthed by the Guardian’s investigation into carer’s allowance, which showed tens of thousands of unpaid carers who were looking after disabled or frail relatives had found they owed huge sums to the government without warning, after unwittingly breaching earnings rules by a few pounds a week.
She said there was no reason why a system could not be put in place to immediately alert people if they breached the strict earnings threshold, which means they are no longer entitled to the benefit.
“That will be an absolute priority for me because these are people who are absolutely at breaking point, looking after the people they love, with precious little help and support in return,” she said. “Any repayments … have to be done in a fair way. You will know that we have to see what the situation is if we get into government, to look at all of the data about what is happening. But we need to put the system right for the long-term.”
Kendall said she was concerned errors could still be happening. “If you go in your overdraft, your bank immediately tells you, we should be able to do that for these payments. I know people will be absolutely desperate about it. And I want to make sure we do everything to put it right.”
The Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has already committed to reforming the carer’s allowance system in the party’s manifesto.
Kendall, who has recently returned to the role after two months off for a routine hip replacement, said she was encountering an electorate with very little hope for what either party could offer them.
She said that the party had far bolder plans to achieve over two terms of a Labour government – but said the way to win back trust was to be cautious with public finances and only promise what could be achieved.
“I remember in 1997 when we promised to take 100,000 people off the waiting list, lots of people said well, that’s nowhere near enough. But by the time we left office, we had ended waiting, through investment and reform,” she said. “It is really, really important that people see this [campaign] as first steps.”
She said the state of the economy – and her potential task at the head of the government’s biggest spending department – kept her up at night. “Of course it does. I’ve been an MP for 14 years and I know how much people have suffered. I know they are absolutely on their knees.
“Somebody here [in Thurrock] said there’s so much wrong that you got to put right. We understand that, but I think people also recognise it can’t change immediately.”
Kendall said the biggest battle the party was fighting was despair from voters that any change was possible, even from Labour. “People have had the hope kicked out of them,” she said. “I’ve been all over the country since the election has been called and there are so many people who either don’t believe we can make change or who just don’t know.
“And that is our challenge. I have never believed the polls. I know people’s frustrations. I really do. But we will show those first steps, as part of a 10-year strategy to renew the country. That is a challenge that we face.”
Thurrock, which has a Conservative majority of 11,000 is one of a slew of battleground seats in Kent and Essex with older populations which Tories are attempting to hold with promises to older voters, including a pledge to protect the state pension from income tax.
Older people speaking to Kendall at the community centre said they had far wider ranging concerns – including rising rents, energy bills, NHS waiting lists and caring for disabled relatives.
New analysis from Labour found that tax thresholds frozen under the Conservatives have already cost pensioners £1,000 more on average and that the new Tory pledge would hand back just a third of what had already been taxed.
“There are twice as many over 65s paying tax in the course of this government’s 14 years,” Kendall said. “And that’s what pensioners here are saying; they’re paying more tax. We have the highest tax burden for 70 years, and the cost of living is going up and up and up, higher cost of food, higher cost of fuel that is failing Britain’s pensioners. They need change and that’s what Labour’s offering.”
