Unpaid carers are still being threatened with prosecution or ordered to repay thousands of pounds after falling foul of strict ‘cliff-edge’ rules governing Carer's Allowance.
Carers can be hit with large repayment demands if their earnings exceed the eligibility threshold by even a small margin, and the Government has previously pledged to fix the issue.
But new figures revealed by The Guardian show carers were ordered to repay a total of £33m in 2025-26 following reported overpayments, raising fresh questions over whether reforms are working.
Anna Dixon, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on carers, said she hoped the Department for Work and Pensions would investigate why the numbers remain so high and called on ministers to be transparent with carers and Parliament about the scale of the problem and their plan to resolve it.
Further reading: The Carer’s Allowance scandal by Kirsty McHugh, CEO of Carers Trust.
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