Carers UK has published a new report which brings together the experiences of unpaid family carers who received a Carer’s Allowance overpayment. The report was produced as the result of the feedback they received in May from family carers like yourself. On behalf of Carers UK we would like to thank you if you participated in their survey
Family Carers reported receiving overpayments of between £150 and £20,000, with the average overpayment being £4,000. News of the overpayment often came as a shock and could take many years to repay, causing financial difficulties and having a serious impact on mental health and wellbeing.
The current earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance is £151 per week, and going over this by just a few pence means 100% of the Carer’s Allowance for that week needs to be repaid – £81.90 at 2024/25 rate. Many people reported going over the limit unwittingly, and despite having the information on their earnings, the DWP did not take swift action which lead to a build-up of overpayments into large sums.
Improving the processes and design of Carer’s Allowance will enable more family carers to stay in the employment for longer as well as reducing the risk of overpayments.
Carers UK Recommendations to the DWP include:
- Sending alerts to carers when their earnings potentially breach the earnings limit
- Improving information sharing and processes within the DWP
- Improving the information available to carers and their interaction with DWP
- Raising the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit to 21 hours per week and pegging it to the National Living Wage
- Taking steps to remove the hard ‘cliff edge’ of the earnings limit and replacing this with a taper to earnings
- Writing off substantial overpayments where carers could have been notified sooner
- Conducting a full review of Carer’s Allowance level and its eligibility criteria
Carers UK continue to gather the experiences of family carers who have had an overpayment of Carer’s Allowance and you can share yours anonymously.
