Revealed: DWP still allowing unpaid carers to run up debts despite being told about overpayments

The Department for Work and Pensions continued to pay carer’s allowance to a former unpaid carer for six months after his husband’s death, leaving him with debts of more than £1,300, despite his repeated attempts to stop the payments, the Guardian has revealed [1]. Chris Farrell, 65, provided full-time care for his late husband for four years and claimed carer’s allowance, a non-contributory benefit payable to people who care for a disabled person for at least 35 hours a week [2]. After his husband died, Farrell contacted the DWP’s bereavement line in December and was told the carer’s allowance unit would be informed [1]. However, the £86.45 weekly payments continued beyond the eight-week grace period [1]. Farrell then contacted the DWP three times — through an online form, by phone, and by registered letter — without success [1]. “The DWP needs to get its act together to ensure when a claimant advises them of a change in circumstances they action the information efficiently so overpayments and potential penalties are not left hanging over someone who tries to do the right thing,” Farrell said [1]. The DWP, the UK’s largest public service department by expenditure, administers a range of benefits to around 20 million claimants [3]. The Pension, Disability and Carers Service, which previously handled such benefits as an executive agency, had its functions brought back inside the DWP in 2011 [4]. The Guardian is aware of five other cases where carers reported being unable to stop carer benefit payments despite informing the DWP they were no longer eligible [1]. One carer accumulated more than £2,000 of unwanted carer’s allowance over 10 months after their mother entered a care home, having contacted the DWP five times [1]. Another was overpaid more than £2,650 after reporting a new work contract over a year ago [1]. Carers who receive an overpayment demand deemed to be their error must repay the sum along with a £50 civil penalty fine, and in extreme cases risk fraud charges [1]. Helen Walker, chief executive of Carers UK, said: “Carers tell us that receiving money they know is not theirs to keep creates confusion and makes it difficult to budget or plan for the future. They are left with an ever-growing worry of potential debt hanging over them” [1]. An official review by disability rights expert Liz Sayce found that DWP backlogs and record-keeping issues led to carers receiving overpayment notices because reported changes in circumstances had been ignored, deleted, or lost [1]. The DWP said on Friday it would write off Farrell’s overpayment after the Guardian approached officials with details of his case [1]. A DWP spokesperson said: “Once a carer’s allowance claimant has correctly reported a change in circumstances, their responsibilities are discharged — with any overpayments made by DWP written off as official error” [1].