carer’s allowance

Mother of autistic boy left with £10,000 debt after breaching DWP rules by £1.92 a week

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/03/mother-of-autistic-boy-left-with-10000-debt-after-breaching-dwp-rules-by-192-a-week

Guy Shahar, Oxana and their son, Daniel. Oksana juggled her caring duties with two part-time roles but said the demands by the Department for Work and Pensions had left her feeling let down. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

Over five-year period Oksana Shahar – who cares for her son – was paid a small amount more than carer’s allowance earnings limits allow

It was three weeks after Christmas when the bombshell letter arrived. Guy Shahar and his wife, Oksana, looked at each other in stunned disbelief.

They had followed the Guardian’s investigation into the carer’s allowance scandal that has left thousands of families with crippling debts and criminal records. Not once did they think they would join them.

“Important,” it read in big bold type. “You have been paid more carer’s allowance than you are entitled to. You now need to pay this money back”.

The sum being demanded by the government was staggering: £10,180.45.

“It just didn’t seem real,” said Guy, 53. “It was so surreal and outrageous we assumed there must have been some sort of mistake”.

There was no mistake. The family, from Feltham in west London, had unwittingly breached the strict earnings limit that has left hundreds of thousands of carers paying back huge sums to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in a saga that has been compared to the Post Office scandal.

Oksana, 53, had overstepped the earnings limit by just £1.92 a week on average while juggling caring for their son Daniel, 15, who has autism, with part-time roles as a school dinner lady and a zero-hours contract at Sports Direct.

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Across the whole five-year period, she earned a total of £505 more than the rules allow – an average of £1.92 a week. Yet instead of repaying £505, the DWP is demanding £10,130.45 – plus a £50 “civil penalty”.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/03/mother-of-autistic-boy-left-with-10000-debt-after-breaching-dwp-rules-by-192-a-week

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.

Continue ReadingMother of autistic boy left with £10,000 debt after breaching DWP rules by £1.92 a week

DWP ‘blocked whistleblower giving evidence to carer’s allowance review’

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/03/dwp-blocked-whistleblower-giving-evidence-to-carers-allowance-review

The Department for Work and Pensions’ offices in central London. The review will look in part at why the DWP allowed carers to unknowingly accrue overpayments of thousands of pounds. Photograph: Benjamin John/Alamy

Staffer told by official it would be inappropriate for him to give evidence to review of scandal-hit benefit

The Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of blocking a whistleblower who repeatedly raised the alarm about carer’s allowance from giving evidence to an independent review of the scandal-hit benefit.

The DWP staffer was told by a senior official it was inappropriate to share with the review their knowledge of the inner workings of a system that has become notorious for its often cruel treatment of unpaid carers.

The review will examine how hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers ended up with huge debts and in some cases a criminal record for mostly minor and accidental breaches of carer’s allowance benefit earnings rules.

Approached by the Guardian last month with evidence that officials had rejected requests from individual staff members to make submissions to the review, the DWP said there was “no blanket ban” and it wanted “everyone” to contribute.

However, when the whistleblower, Enrico La Rocca, subsequently reapplied for permission he was told by the DWP’s personnel department that it would not be appropriate for him to give evidence.

Ministers announced the review in October after a Guardian investigation that revealed DWP officials and Conservative ministers had allowed flaws in the system to continue for years, despite promises to fix the problems.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/03/dwp-blocked-whistleblower-giving-evidence-to-carers-allowance-review

Continue ReadingDWP ‘blocked whistleblower giving evidence to carer’s allowance review’

Work and pensions committee chair tells ministers to fix carer’s allowance issues

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/work-and-pensions-committee-chair-tells-ministers-to-fix-carers-allowance-issues

Stephen Timms says DWP letting unpaid carers incur ‘enormous accidental overpayments’

Ministers have been told to “immediately” fix the issues causing tens of thousands of unpaid carers to incur “enormous accidental overpayments” amid growing anger over the carer’s allowance scandal.

An older man waits at a pedestrian crossing pushing a person in a wheelchair

Stephen Timms, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee, said he was “very troubled” that scores of carers were being forced into financial distress as a result of the government’s mistakes.

He said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should be “helping them not harassing them” and added: “It does sound to me as though things are going quite badly wrong at the moment.”

Timms, the chair of the Commons work and pensions committee and the Labour MP for East Ham, told BBC Radio 4’s Money Box programme that the DWP seemed to “completely ignore” the notifications it received when an unpaid carer earned more than the £151-a-week limit.

Instead, he said, the department was allowing people to incur “enormous accidental overpayments”, often over several years. In dozens of cases these bills have totalled more than £20,000.

The Guardian revealed this week that 156,000 unpaid carers are now repaying severe penalties – pushing many into debt or financial distress – for often unwittingly overstepping the small earnings limit while caring for a loved one. Roughly one in five unpaid carers in part-time work breached the earnings limit last year.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/work-and-pensions-committee-chair-tells-ministers-to-fix-carers-allowance-issues

Continue ReadingWork and pensions committee chair tells ministers to fix carer’s allowance issues