The DWP has systems that flag when a carer’s income breaches this threshold, but fails in many cases to act on the information, allowing carers to rack up thousands of pounds’ worth of overpayments over months and years before, in some cases, pursuing them in the courts for benefit fraud.
In a recent case a carer and part-time supermarket worker was successfully prosecuted for benefit fraud relating to breaches of earnings rules. The carer had agreed to repay in instalments but the DWP used proceeds-of-crime laws (normally used to seize cars, cash and properties owned by convicted major criminals) to take a £16,000 inheritance, which had been left to her by the mother she dedicated so much of her life to caring for.
www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/unpaid-carers-allowance-payment-prosecution-earnings-rules
www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/why-are-so-many-carers-taken-to-court-for-benefit
www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/dwp-carer-allowance-benefit-payment-case
