Unpaid carers have welcomed plans to launch a review of “outdated” benefit rules that have left tens of thousands of people who look after loved ones with huge debts and threatened with prosecution, and triggered a scandal.
However, they said a much wider review was needed to reform the “unfit for purpose” system of carer benefits, and some urged ministers to write off £250m of existing overpayments owed by claimants who have been unwittingly caught by carer’s allowance rules.
The welfare secretary, Liz Kendall, announced plans on Tuesday to overhaul aspects of the carer’s allowance benefit in an attempt to put an end to growing public outrage over injustices that have been compared to the Post Office scandal.
A series of Guardian articles in recent months have revealed how tens of thousands of unpaid carers who did paid work part-time were being harshly punished by benefits officials for often minor and inadvertent breaches of strict carer’s allowance earnings rules.
Although the terms of reference for the independent review of carer’s allowance overpayments have not yet been published, Kendall has promised it will be “open and transparent” and to “learn all the lessons” about carer’s allowance failings.
The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, himself a carer for his disabled teenage son, John, welcomed the decision to launch the review and paid tribute to “campaigns by carers’ organisations, the Guardian newspaper, and the Liberal Democrats”.
Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Davey said the evidence needed to reform carers allowance was “already long established”. He called on ministers to write off existing overpayments and carry out a wider review of “the support that carers deserve”.
Helen Walker, the chief executive of Carers UK, said: “Carer’s allowance overpayments are having a devastating effect for many carers, causing additional stress and anxiety when many are already under huge pressure and in precarious financial positions. It is positive to see the government taking steps to tackle this scandal.”
The Carers Trust chief executive, Kirsty McHugh, said: “Too many people have had their lives ruined by being pursued for huge sums of money simply because they made an honest mistake. These fines need to be written off and the systems allowing them to build up must be overhauled.”
She added: “The government should also take this opportunity to review and reform the archaic and unfair carer’s allowance system as a whole. Created in the 1970s, it’s just not fit for purpose today.”
Katy Styles, the founder of We Care Campaign, a grassroots network for unpaid carers, said: “The government has to get to grips with overpayments – it has been causing too much worry and fear for carers. But we need a wider review that looks at a more fundamental reform of carer benefits and support.”
Carer Davina Ware, 67, who was left “humiliated” and “devastated” by her treatment after inadvertently running up nearly £4,000 on overpayments, said: “The system desperately needs overhauling as soon as possible to stop this anguish and to stop carers from falling into this pit, because it’s deeply unfair.”
Karina Moon, the sole carer for her 22-year-old daughter, is repaying the DWP more than £11,000 after unwittingly breaching the “cliff edge” earnings rules, sometimes by as little as 50p a week. She welcomed the review and urged ministers to “value your carers and treat them with the respect they deserve because they’re saving the country billions and billions of pounds by giving up their life”.
There are about 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK who look after ill, disabled or frail loved ones. More than 1 million are in poverty. About 1 million carers claim carer’s allowance, a weekly benefit worth £81.90 a week. Claimants are allowed to earn £151 a week from paid work, equivalent to about 13 hours’ work at the national minimum wage.
The review is likely to look at the notorious “cliff edge” penalties whereby a carer who earns even £1 over the weekly £151 earnings limit must repay the entire benefit. A carer who earned £1 more than the threshold for 52 weeks, therefore, would pay back not £52 but £4,258.80.
It is also likely to consider whether the earnings limit should be increased, ensuring fewer claimants run up overpayments and enabling more carers to keep a foothold in work. Ministers and campaigners are concerned by the number of carers who give up work and then fall out of the job market, a phenomenon in part blamed on restrictive carer’s allowance earnings rules.
The review will be chaired by Liz Sayce, a respected former chief executive of the charity Disability Rights and an expert in disability employment, mental health and welfare benefits issues.
The carer’s allowance scandal is regarded by ministers as a legacy of the Conservative government, which promised MPs five years ago it would tackle overpayments but instead allowed the number of carer overpayments to rise by nearly 70% to 135,000.
It is estimated that as many as one in five of carers who claim or have claimed carer’s allowance have been hit by earnings-related overpayments, which can range from a few hundred pounds to as much as £20,000 in extreme cases.
