The announcement by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of a new regime for checking breaches of carer’s allowance rules is a milestone in the campaign to end the shockingly poor treatment of claimants. Rules directing officials to investigate only half of alerts about suspected overpayments are rightly being ditched. In future, all reports will be checked, so that claimants can be notified and avoid getting into debt.
This month’s lifting of the weekly earnings limit, from £151 to £196, is another step forward. Claimants can now work for the equivalent of 16 hours at the national living wage (NLW) without losing their entitlement to a carer’s allowance payment of £83.30. By pegging the earnings limit to the NLW, so that in future they rise in sync, ministers have made it less likely that pay rises will tip people unwittingly over the edge and into trouble. A government-ordered review by Liz Sayce, the disability expert, will soon make further recommendations, including what should happen to the outstanding debts that are blighting lives.
