The Guardian view on supporting carers: flawed rules around allowances must be fixed | Editorial

Ministers have signalled good intentions towards unpaid carers, and must now follow through

Conor Thackray, one of the carer’s allowance claimants who told his story about overpayments to the Guardian, referred to the Department for Work and Pensions as operating a “catch-out culture”. This phrase sums up what is wrong with the current system. The rule that any carer earning over £151 a week must forfeit the entirety of the allowance enabling them to care for a family member who is sick or disabled (and has been formally assessed as needing care) needs to be altered. Multiple tales of small, inadvertent infractions, resulting in sizeable debts and significant hardship, make a mockery of a benefit that is meant to help those in need.

Even more egregious than this inflexibility is the way that mistakes have been handled. Despite the existence of a mechanism to alert officials to potential breaches of the £151 limit, many carers have been allowed to keep on claiming without any warning or checks. Hence the situation where people are suddenly confronted with large bills for repayments. As our reporting has shown, those affected are not an unlucky handful. Hundreds of carers have been prosecuted and criminalised for breaches, while 134,500 are paying back £251m in earnings-related overpayments. This systemic failure is a disgrace that has been allowed to drag on for far too long. The work and pensions committee’s recommendations for change are five years old.