Why are unpaid carers having to pay thousands of pounds back to the government?

It's estimated 134,500 unpaid carers have been asked to pay vast amounts of money back to the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) because they have gone over their entitled hours when receiving Carer's Allowance.

Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has called it "a scandal of huge proportions" and the secretary of state for work and pensions, Liz Kendall, has commissioned an independent review.

It's hoped to assess how overpayments were allowed to be accrued, the overall value of £251m. ITV News Meridian has spoken to two people who were told they over thousands, saying the impact on their lives was huge.

We take a look at how we got to this point and what is being done to tackle the problem.

How many unpaid carers are there in the country?

There are around 5.7 million people who are unpaid carers, in the UK according to Census 2021 data, which is around 9% of the population providing unpaid care.

Carers UK estimate the true number to be almost double that at 10.6 million. The charity also says 1 in 5 of them live in poverty, while supporting family members.

What is the Carer's Allowance?

It's a benefit provided by the government to support people who are caring for others. It can be claimed if you look after someone for more than 35 hours a week.

This allows you to claim £81.90 per week. However this only happens if you earn less than £151 per week elsewhere - or just over 13 hours work on minimum wage.

You do not have to be related to, or live with, the person you care for. You do not get paid extra if you care for more than one person.

According to Department for Work & Pensions statistics, by February 2024 around 1,410,000 people are claiming this benefit.

How do overpayments happen?

If you go over, even by just 15 minutes, or a few pennies, you must repay any allowance in full.

For example, a carer who earned £1 more than the £151 threshold for 52 weeks, would pay back £4,258.80 not £52.

Carers have said they were not aware they had been wrongly overpaid the benefit because many did not realise they had exceeded the earning limit for it. Some for years.

In a Debate on the issue in Parliament this October, Mel Stride, the Former work and pensions secretary said "there's an element of trust in how that benefit works...therefore there is an earnings limit.

"One's income has to be adjusted in order to decide if you are below that limit" pointing to pension reductions as a way of the challenges surrounding why the DWP may take time to figure out if a person is above a limit.

This is how for some carers, they won't find out for years until the debt has racked up.

A recent study of 12,500 unpaid carers by Carers UK called 'State of Caring Survey 2024' found...

• 61% of unpaid carers are worried about living costs and managing in the future

• Over a third (35%) don’t feel confident they will be able to manage financially over the next 12 month

• A quarter of carers (27%) are struggling to make ends meet and 28% of carers are cutting back on essentials like food and heating

What do charities say?

The CEO of Carers UK told ITV News Meridian that the hours for the working threshold should be increased to 21 hours of the national living wage. This, Helen Walker says, would "cut out that cliff edge, if they go over by just a pound, it would be tapered."

Walker says the scandal puts "a huge amount of stress on unpaid carers" who are already going through so much in their personal lives. The threat of going to court makes the situation even worse she said, especially with the "onus being on the carer" to keep on top of all this.

They presented a dossier to the new minister Sir Stephen Timms in July, documenting up to 140 carers about their experiences of paying back their debt. In it, they heard from people who say they felt like criminals, really impacting their mental health and truly traumatic.

What happens to carers who are told they must repay the cash?

Some may decide to pay in full, like Elizabeth Tait from Thames Ditton in Surrey. This wasn't until she ended up at a tribunal which the judge ordered her to pay back. This is a common theme for many.

Many, too, decide to no longer claim the benefit at all because of the stress of it. Tait said, "I am a carer, a single parent, I’m not on benefits – what am I supposed to do?” 

Others like Elizabeth Moss from Snodland in Kent, choose to pay back in instalments. But the impact on the wider family is also quite common, her husband has also had to adapt his hours to help pay some of this back.

It is also common for some to give up work entirely and live off the Carer's Allowance entirely, alongside other benefits.

What is the government doing about this?

Both Elizabeths we spoke to have been campaigning for changes to the benefit entirely. But in the meantime, the new Labour government announced an independent review on 16 October.

Led by Liz Sayce, former CEO of Disability Rights UK. It will focus on how and why such debts were accrued, consider what the department termed operational changes to minimise the risk of overpayment in future, and look at how people with overpayments can best be supported.

Helen Walker welcomed the review from the government, saying she "hopes the review will be quick, and it will come out with some very clear recommendations."

But Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey insisted the majority of cases of overpayment should be "written off immediately".

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