Carers who have suffered overpayments of carer’s allowance ask the same question time and time again: they didn’t know they were breaching benefit rules, but welfare authorities did. Why were they not informed and the overpayments allowed to go unpaid for months, leaving them thousands of pounds in debt?
In the case of the thousands of carers who are unwittingly breaching Carer’s Allowance income rules and paying back sums of up to £20,000, this may have been due to officials failing to check their income alerts – which could have prevented the problem and largely avoided the misery of debt and overpayments.
There is also another category of overpayment where a carer has reported entitlement information relating to their claim to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and therefore reasonably expected that the information would be shared with other parts of the DWP that process relevant claims relating to the person they care for.
As The Guardian reports, this information sharing is not automatic: in Rose Chitseko’s case, the success of her claim for carers’ allowance meant that, in theory, her mother, who was 88 and unable to look after herself, should not have been paid other related benefits.
Ms Citseko’s claim was supposed to be reconciled and payments to her mother stopped, but this did not happen: her mother was too ill to report her daughter’s claims to the DWP (even if she had known about them), and an £8,000 overpayment was awarded (which ministers waived after the Guardian reported on the story).
Social security rules say claimants are ultimately responsible for notifying the DWP of changes in their circumstances that may affect their entitlement to benefits, and critics say the agency too often relies on these rules to excuse its own errors, poor decision-making and information-sharing failings.
Former insurance executive and unpaid carer John Ferguson found out firsthand that it was he who was held liable and asked to return money he claims was wrongly paid, even though it was the Ministry of Health and Human Services that was to blame for the information he provided about his mother’s situation not being used and shared.
Ms Ferguson, who received Carer’s Allowance while caring for her mother who has dementia, said she felt she was being punished for management failings that occurred because “the left hand at DWP doesn’t know what the right hand is doing”.
In his case, an error by the DWP office administering Carer’s Allowance – a benefit claimed by his mother to help people with severe disabilities meet the costs of additional support – meant that benefits were not adjusted or reclaimed when she was in hospital, despite Ms Ferguson informing the DWP of the change in her circumstances.
More than a year later, Ferguson received a surprise call from Carers’ Allowance demanding him to repay £405 (plus a £50 penalty), claiming that he should not have been paid the weeks his mother was in hospital (despite the fact that he cared for her every day), and that it was his fault for not reporting her extended hospital stay.
Ferguson was confused. He had told the DWP at the time, on his mother’s behalf, about her hospitalisation and (fortunately) had received a letter from Carers’ Allowance confirming that her claim would not be changed. The Carers’ Allowance unit was unfazed. As far as that unit was concerned, he had not told the DWP. theyso he had to pay the money back.
He pointed out that the two benefits were linked and that he only qualified for Carer’s Allowance because his mother was receiving Carer’s Allowance. Would it not be reasonable to expect the two DWP offices to share information or even admit that their own failings had caused the overpayment?
“They basically realised they were asking me to compensate them for their own systemic mistakes,” Ferguson said. “It was like the Post Office scandal. No one was willing to accept responsibility for their own mistakes. The blame had to be placed on the claimants. I ended up being thrown under the bus as a scapegoat.”
“,”prompt”:”Share your experience”,”contacts”:[{“name”:”whatsapp”,”value”:”+447766780300″,”urlPrefix”:”https://wa.me/”,”guidance”:”https://www.theguardian.com/info/2015/aug/12/whatsapp-sharing-stories-with-the-guardian”}],”displayOnSensitive”:false,”activeUntil”:1717891200000,”elementId”:”318b868e-d3fa-49ad-b2a7-2fc74d70dbe9″,”title”:”Share your experience”,”isNonCollapsible”:false,”formFields”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”name”,”id”:”163548221″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Name”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”where_do_you_live”,”id”:”163548222″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Where do you live?”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”tell_us_a_bit_about_yourself_eg_age_and_what_you_do_for_a_living”,”id”:”163548223″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Tell us a bit about yourself (e.g. age and what you do for a living)”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”if_you_are_a_carer_and_live_in_the_uk_tell_us_if_youve_been_investigated_for_benefit_fraud_and_what_the_outcome_of_the_investigation_was”,”description”:”Please include as much detail as possible”,”id”:”163548224″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”If you are a carer and live in the UK, tell us if you’ve been investigated for benefit fraud, and what the outcome of the investigation was”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”textarea”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”if_you_have_been_investigated_by_the_dwp_for_alleged_benefit_fraud_share_how_this_has_affected_you_and_your_family”,”description”:”Please include as much detail as possible”,”id”:”163548226″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”If you have been investigated by the DWP for alleged benefit fraud, share how this has affected you and your family”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”textarea”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”do_you_have_concerns_”,”description”:”Please include as much detail as possible”,”id”:”163550186″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Do you have concerns? “,”hidden”:false,”type”:”textarea”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”if_you_are_happy_to_you_can_upload_a_photo_of_yourself_here”,”id”:”163548227″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”If you are happy to, you can upload a photo of yourself here”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”file”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldRadio”,”name”:”can_we_publish_your_response”,”options”:[{“label”:”Yes, entirely”,”value”:”Yes, entirely”},{“label”:”Yes, but contact me first”,”value”:”Yes, but contact me first”},{“label”:”Yes, but please keep me anonymous”,”value”:”Yes, but please keep me anonymous”},{“label”:”No, this is information only”,”value”:”No, this is information only”}],”id”:”163548228″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Would you like to make your answer public?”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”radio”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”phone_number”,”description”:”Your contact information will help us contact you with more information. This information will only be visible to parents.”,”id”:”163548229″,”hi deLabel”:false,”label”:”Phone Number”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”email_address_”,”description”:”Your contact information will help us contact you with more information. This information will only be visible to parents. Parents. “,”id”:”163548230″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Email Address “,”hidden”:false,”type”:”text”,”required”:true},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldBase”,”name”:”you_can_add_more_information_here”,”description”:”If you want to include someone else’s name, please ask them first.”,”id”:”163548231″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”You can add more information here”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”textarea”,”required”:false},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutFormFieldRadio”,”name”:”Can I speak to our audio and video team?”,”options”:[{“label”:”Audio only”,”value”:”Audio only”},{“label”:”Video only”,”value”:”Video only”},{“label”:”Audio and video”,”value”:”Audio and video”},{“label”:”No, I’m not interested”,”value”:”No, I’m not interested”}],”id”:”163552571″,”hideLabel”:false,”label”:”Interested in speaking with our audio and/or video team?”,”hidden”:false,”type”:”radio”,”required”:false}],”_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.CalloutBlockElementV2″,”tagName”:”callout-carers-in-the-uk-investigated-for-benefit-fraud”,”activeFrom”:1712534400000,”id”:”34638eb5-8b14-4ba2-aefc-ba0364d0505b”,”calloutsUrl”:”https://callouts.guardianapis.com/formstack-campaign/submit”,”formId”:5720381},”pageId”:”society/article/2024/may/27/no-one-would-accept-blame-carers-highlight-dwp-failures-over-debt-crisis”}” config=”{“renderingTarget”:”Web”,”darkModeAvailable”:false,”inAdvertisingPartnerABTest”:false,”assetOrigin”:”https://assets.guim.co.uk/”}”>
Mr Ferguson challenged the overpayments at the Social Security Tribunal in Glasgow in March and won. “It never went to court but the DWP refused to admit they were wrong. I thought they would back off sooner before they were made out to be fools in front of a judge,” he said.
