A recent National Audit Office report has revealed that hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers faced significant penalties related to overpayments of carer's allowance, exposing a systemic failure in the Department for Work and Pensions' handling of the benefit.
Despite promises from senior welfare officials to reform the system, the DWP did not adequately address overpayment issues, leading to over 262,000 unwittingly incurred debts by carers.
Charities and MPs have highlighted that the DWP's staffing and operational strategies prioritized financial savings over the needs of unpaid carers, contributing to emotional distress and financial hardships.
The findings indicate that the intended use of new data-matching technology to solve overpayment problems was neglected, with significant numbers of alerts regarding potential overpayments left uninvestigated.
#carers-allowance #welfare-reform #department-for-work-and-pensions #financial-hardship #overpayments
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