Unpaid carers forced to repay DWP over £250m

The Government requires unpaid carers to pay back more than £250m after thousands were unknowingly overpaid their allowance.

(c) Dominik Lange/Unsplash

(c) Dominik Lange/Unsplash

The Government requires unpaid carers to pay back more than £250m after thousands were unknowingly overpaid their allowance.

Paul Maynard MP from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) last week confirmed that 134,800 people had a total outstanding Carers Allowance debt of £251m.

Unpaid carers who care for someone for more than 35 hours a week are entitled to receive the allowance.

However, they are only eligible if their earnings fall under the £151-a-week earnings limit.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms, Mr Maynard MP said that women make up most Carer's Allowance claims.

There are currently 42,800 (32%) males, 91,900 (68%) females and 100 (less than 1%) not identified, with an outstanding Carers Allowance debt.

As of November 2023, there were over 991,000 people in receipt of Carers Allowance, nearly three quarters of whom are female.

The minister for disabled people, Mims Davies, recently told MPs research into how unpaid carers are impacted when they are forced to repay benefit overpayments will be published ‘shortly'.

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