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

MPs call on spending watchdog to investigate DWP overpayments to carers

A younger woman helps and older woman button up her jacket
The work and pensions select committee said it was concerned about how overpayments were being clawed back from unpaid carers. Photograph: Shestock/Getty Images/Blend Images

A cross-party group of MPs has called on the government’s public spending watchdog to investigate the growing scandal that has plunged tens of thousands of unpaid carers into debt and left some with criminal convictions after unwittingly breaching benefit rules.

The Commons work and pensions select committee said it was concerned with how the government was clawing back huge sums from carers, and in some cases prosecuting them for fraud, five years after it promised to tackle carer’s allowance overpayments.

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