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

UK ministers promise ‘new settlement’ for carers amid allowance scandal

A silhouetted person pushing another in a wheelchair by the sea at sunset
In April, official figures showed 134,500 claimants were repaying carer’s allowance overpayments, totalling about £250m. Photograph: Pixel Youth movement/Alamy

The UK government has promised a “new settlement” for unpaid carers, vowing to put an end to the scandal of carer benefit overpayments that has left hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in huge debt and in some cases facing prosecution.

Ministers are expected to announce the details of an independent review of carer’s allowance, the main benefit for carers, on Monday. The review will look at why the overpayments happened and how the problems can be fixed.

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