Research into how unpaid carers are impacted when they are forced to repay benefit overpayments will be published ‘shortly’, a minister has pledged.
In 2018, the Work and Pensions Committee began an inquiry into reports that many carers had amassed large overpayments of Carer’s Allowance, an £81.90 weekly benefit for people who provide at least 35 hours of unpaid care a week.
The committee said the £151- a-week earnings limit created a ‘cliff edge’ for claimants, since those who do not realise their earnings have risen even slightly above the threshold will immediately owe back the full weekly benefit.
It said overpayments could go undetected by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for months – leaving carers facing ‘considerable distress’ and financial difficulties when made to repay overpayments they had no idea they were accruing.
The DWP agreed in 2019 to create a report on the issue, but it has yet to emerge.
The minister for disabled people, Mims Davies, told MPs on the committee yesterday that the research would be released ‘shortly’.
However, she said there would be no review of carer’s allowance – something MPs have been calling for.
Carers UK chief executive Helen Walker said carers would be ‘deeply disappointed’ that there were no plans to change any of the benefit’s ‘inflexible and punitive eligibility criteria’.
