'I was hit by the carer's allowance scandal. I don't think the DWP realises the anguish we faced'

I read with interest that the carer’s allowance cliff-edge earnings limit is set to be abolished and a taper system is to be introduced. This is in response to what has been referred to as ‘the carer’s allowance scandal’.

Carers who earned over the earnings entitlement by even 1p a week saw their carer’s allowance entitlement completely wiped out. This could result in a carer owing thousands of pounds in overpayments. Put simply, if you earned £1 over the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance for 52 weeks, you would not simply pay back £52, you would instead pay back the 52 weeks of carer’s allowance.

Going by 2019 carer’s allowance amounts, which was when I was told I had been overpaid, this equates to a staggering overpayment of £3,439.80 for the year.

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Some overpayments were miscalculated as there was confusion over how you average someone’s earnings. Many overpayments were calculated using weekly earnings rather than annual income. Some carers faced overpayments using the weekly method. However, if their earnings over the year had been averaged out, it would often show that someone had not breached the earnings threshold.

This has been upheld in court by carers who have successfully appealed against their carer’s allowance overpayments and won. A recent review looking at carer’s allowance overpayments by the government concluded that many carers have been wrongly identified as being overpaid, due to systematic errors in the DWP guidelines. The review recommended cancelling or repaying wrongly identified overpayments.

Personally, while I largely see the conclusions of the review as a positive, I do not think the review has really considered the devastating emotional and mental anguish that was caused to the carers who were hit by massive overpayments and in some cases have received criminal convictions. I can say this because in the winter of 2019 I was told that I had breached the earning threshold for carer’s allowance.

Without warning I received a letter out of the blue from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), warning me I had breached the earnings threshold. The letter was threatening, warning me that I could receive a criminal conviction that could result in imprisonment.

I was working part time in a supermarket on a ten-hour contract, which was well below the earnings threshold. During busier times I had been asked to work an additional hour or two a week. I agreed to this as I felt pressurised into agreeing by my boss at the time. However, at the back of my mind I was worried about breaching the carer’s allowance threshold.

In light of this, I rang the carer’s allowance helpline and I was advised that if my earnings over the year did not breach the yearly threshold then that was allowed. Therefore, I thought I was fine. Reassured, I thought nothing more of this. Unfortunately, the advice was the opposite of what they used to work out my overpayment: weekly earnings instead of yearly earnings.

I was absolutely petrified. The letter was terrifying. I remember just crying and crying and feeling utterly desperate. I had only recently taken a part-time job, as my son had undergone four years of chemotherapy and two bone marrow transplants. My son’s second transplant at the end of 2018 had been successful. He still needed a lot of care and medical treatment, but his needs were not as intensive as they had previously been, so I felt confident in leaving him in the care of family members whilst I worked part-time. In response to that letter – feeling hopeless and frightened – I handed my notice to my employer with immediate effect. I was too scared to carry on working in case I unknowingly committed benefit fraud.

Receiving that overpayment letter from DWP made me feel like I had done something wrong, when all I had been doing was trying to get back into work after caring for my son for many years. I have now found out that it is quite likely that my overpayment of around £600 is probably wrong, as using averaging over a year my earnings did not breach the carer’s allowance earnings threshold. The huge scale of this issue was laid bare in the recent government review, the Sayce Review. The review has identified 230,000 carers who might have had overpayments applied incorrectly.

I consider myself fortunate, because there are so many more worse overpayment stories from carers and how they were treated by the DWP. But I will never forget the fear, dread, panic and anxiety that overpayment letter from the DWP made me feel in 2019. The Sayce review has committed to issuing refunds and cancelling incorrectly applied carer’s allowance overpayments and rebuilding trust in carers. The review also acknowledged the devastating mental, physical and financial effects on carers. Although considering the harm done to carers, can a refund really make up for that?

I think the new policy announcement regarding carers’ allowance earnings taper in the budget is a positive change for the better. However, it does not come into effect until 2030 to 2031. This risks more carers falling victim to the draconian, confusing and complex earning rules of carer’s allowance.

Samantha Richards is a participant of Changing Realities, a child poverty action group led by the University of Glasgow.

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