An 86-year-old woman with advanced dementia has been told by the government she no longer has to repay a £13,000 benefit debt after her case was highlighted by the Guardian.
Sia Kasparis, who is partially blind and has been bed-bound for two years, was ordered to repay the huge sum after officials said she had failed to notify them her son had taken up caring duties.
However, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would have known this due to the fact that her son Andrew Kasparis had begun claiming carer’s allowance. Kasparis, 66, said it would have been “virtually impossible” for his mother to contact the DWP due to her serious health issues – of which the department was aware – and because English was not her first language.
Her case was highlighted as part of a Guardian investigation that revealed that tens of thousands of unpaid carers were having to pay back more than £250m in overpayments that in many cases had been allowed to accumulate because of years of DWP administrative failures.
Sia Kasparis, who has vascular dementia, heart failure and kidney disease, fell foul of a slightly different aspect of the complicated rules around carer’s allowance, a £81.90-a-week benefit paid to nearly 1 million people who give up full-time work to look after loved ones.
The DWP said the grandmother of five should have notified them that her son had taken up caring duties for her in December 2019, when he began receiving an extra £50 a week in universal credit to provide his mother with round-the-clock care.
From this point, Sia Kasparis was no longer eligible for the severe disability premium of pension credit she had been receiving. Yet given her worsening health – she was soon after diagnosed with vascular dementia – she failed to notify the DWP and was told this year that she owed £12,860 in overpayments dating to December 2019.
At a repayment rate of £51 a month, the DWP would have been clawing the money back until 2034 – when Kasparis would be 106. However, the department confirmed to her son this week on behalf of the new pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, that the debt had been waived.
A letter from the DWP said: “The secretary of state has the power to waive recovery (this is to not ask for the money back) of all or part of the monies owed to the department where there are very special circumstances. Each case is considered individually and is only applied where the particular facts of the case warrant it.
“In respect of Mrs Kasparis’ pension credit overpayment, an officer acting on behalf of the secretary of state has carefully considered the case and I confirm our decision to waive the outstanding balance. Therefore, this money no longer has to be paid back.”
Andrew Kasparis said he had not been able to tell his mother about the debt because it would have been “catastrophic” for her. “She would not have stopped worrying about it. As a family, it’s just a huge relief that it’s all over,” he said.
Kasparis, who lives with his mother, noted there was “no hint of apology” in the government letter, but that he had not expected one: “I’ve got a feeling that’s because they don’t want to admit any sort of liability. It’s just the way they are.”
He is urging Kendall to change the rules requiring claimants of the severe disability premium – who are often extremely unwell, vulnerable and elderly – to alert the DWP to changes of which the department should be already aware.
Campaigners have drawn hope from Labour’s pledge to review the rules around carer’s allowance in light of the Guardian’s reporting. Stephen Timms, the minister responsible for the benefit, has long been a vocal critic of the DWP’s handling of the issue.
In May, before taking up the post, he urged Conservative ministers to “move without delay to get a grip of the problem and ensure carers are no longer subjected to the distress that such overpayments can cause”.
A DWP spokesperson said: “This overpayment has been waived. We are sorry for any distress caused to Mr Kasparis and his mother.”
