Carer's Allowance: 10,000s set to have outrageous overpayment debts wiped

MSE_Emily

Tens of thousands of unpaid carers could have debts built up in Carer's Allowance overpayments wiped or reduced following a new review. Separate action has also been promised to address the benefit's earnings cliff-edge. MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) gave evidence to the review, with its founder Martin Lewis previously calling the system "fundamentally unjust"...

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Carer's Allowance: 10,000s set to have outrageous overpayment debts wiped

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neilied

They need to look further at the weekly limit and lack of flexibility. My wife claims carers allowance and also works as an agency worker in a school. 13 weeks of the year she earns zero. As her regular 39 weeks includes pro rata holidays pay for her to save herself.

Carers allowance does not allow her to work more during her working weeks to balance the 13 unpaid weeks. 

We manage during the short breaks but really struggle during the 6 week summer hols. Also getting the holiday pay upfront adds to the margins on the weekly pay.

prendergoggles

I am in exactly the same position as your wife. I worked in a school on the same basis and I worked extra hours during term time to counter the 13 weeks I did not earn. 
I went to a tribunal and explained that I never went over an annual carer's allowance limit, or go near it, and rules allowed for discretion for 'irregular earners'. 
Despite this the decision went against me. The tribunal asked the DWP to use their discretion to not pursue things further as I was clearly a low earner but it fell on deaf ears. I pay back £5 a month, a waste of time and money for the DWP.
Hope fully some sense will finally come to pass and they will clear this all up for people in similar circumstances. 

Janey747

I am a single parent of a disabled child . In August this year I received a demand for overpayment of CA totalling £6,500 over a 5 year period . This has caused great stress to me and affected my mental health . Why has it taken them 5 years to notify me ? 

I was unclear as to my income boundaries . As I receive variable earnings I assumed an average amount would be taken into account by CA. Surely they would inform me of this was not the case ? 

As I also receive Universal Credit they said I should ask UC for the money as my CA has always been deducted from my monthly entitlement so therefore all of the £6,500 should be recoverable from UC . They said the communication between their departments was so poor it would be better for them if l contact them myself. 

Both these departments work for DWP, surely this easily be resolved between themselves however it has been left to me to sort this out myself and I am at breaking point ! 

UC disagreed with CAs figures and subsequently put a refund of £4,300 into my bank account- not even to CA unit … why? 
After 3 months of being passed around , ignored or given false information by UC I decided to go to my CAB . 

The specialist there was horrified that I am under so much pressure to sort this convoluted mess out on my own with no help from anyone . Even he could not work out why UC were coming up with numerous different calculations and factual errors . None of which came even close to the £6,500 I was being chased for. 

He helped me complete an application to the DWP for a mandatory reconsideration. None of these departments have electronic lines of communication- they still use costly postal service . Therefore this application was posted 5 weeks ago with no response as yet. I also completed an online application which I submitted via my UC journal . I was advised that this would be escalated and actioned within 3 days . That was 4 weeks ago . I am still waiting.  demand for overpayments to CA which I received in August . This is making me so ill . How can I get help please ? Is anyone else in a similar situation? 

elsien

Although readers may wish to note the discrepancy between your headline and the text. Which is technically correct in that 20+ thousand is tens of thousands, but your headline does make it sound like a lot more than that.  

“The Government has now agreed to reassess the overpayments of 185,000 unpaid carers – though, according to its own analysis, it's estimated that only around 26,000 unpaid carers could be eligible for any adjustments.”

neilied

Janey747 said:

I am a single parent of a disabled child . In August this year I received a demand for overpayment of CA totalling £6,500 over a 5 year period . This has caused great stress to me and affected my mental health . Why has it taken them 5 years to notify me ? 

I was unclear as to my income boundaries . As I receive variable earnings I assumed an average amount would be taken into account by CA. Surely they would inform me of this was not the case ? 

As I also receive Universal Credit they said I should ask UC for the money as my CA has always been deducted from my monthly entitlement so therefore all of the £6,500 should be recoverable from UC . They said the communication between their departments was so poor it would be better for them if l contact them myself. 

Both these departments work for DWP, surely this easily be resolved between themselves however it has been left to me to sort this out myself and I am at breaking point ! 

UC disagreed with CAs figures and subsequently put a refund of £4,300 into my bank account- not even to CA unit … why? 
After 3 months of being passed around , ignored or given false information by UC I decided to go to my CAB . 

The specialist there was horrified that I am under so much pressure to sort this convoluted mess out on my own with no help from anyone . Even he could not work out why UC were coming up with numerous different calculations and factual errors . None of which came even close to the £6,500 I was being chased for. 

He helped me complete an application to the DWP for a mandatory reconsideration. None of these departments have electronic lines of communication- they still use costly postal service . Therefore this application was posted 5 weeks ago with no response as yet. I also completed an online application which I submitted via my UC journal . I was advised that this would be escalated and actioned within 3 days . That was 4 weeks ago . I am still waiting.  demand for overpayments to CA which I received in August . This is making me so ill . How can I get help please ? Is anyone else in a similar situation? 

We claim both CA and UC. As we both work and since becoming homeowners rather than tenants, our UC has dropped to zero with occasional payments when as mentioned above my wife has no work due to school hols.

no expert on matter but just by experience. I assume CA are saying that you were not eligible during certain dates and they want the payments returned. Then to balance this they say that for those periods your UC statements would show a deduction for legacy CA. 

Assume that UC would rerun the affected statements to remove that deduction although it would not be a straight swap. As they would remove the deduction but recalculate based on income earned and there for you may lose some due to earnings deductions. 

whizzywoo

I can't understand why DWP does not average out these irregular wages!
Several years ago, before I hit State Pension Age I was self-employed on a part-time basis whilst caring for my husband.
My taxable profit for the year was averaged out once a year by DWP to make sure I was below the earnings limit for Carer's Allowance.  I think in the first 12 months they asked for the figures quarterly but after that it was once a year.  
If they could do it for me why can't they do it for employed earners?

Dee_Dee

Im a single working mum to a disabled son. I knew the amount I could earn and had a chat to the lady that did the wages in the company I worked for. We agreed that I'd work for 15 hours and that would keep me under the threashhold.   I also had to complete online learning to keep up-to-date with social care policies.  When I completed them I was paid fir my learning time...taking me over the amount for that month.  I PHONED TO REPORT THE OVER PAYMENT (To carers allowance).  I was told they would look into it.  They then send a full breakdown for over the previous 4 years stating all the times I was over.  All by leess than 50pence!!!!  Where I'd been moved to work fir a service user with a higher hourly rate.  I hadn't noticed extra money in my bank account.  I offered to payback every penny over id earned. It totalled £175 (including the £146 I HAD PHONED THEM ABOUT)  I appealled twice and was turned down both times.  I was even told on the phone I "could go to prison as ive committed fraud!"  I went to the CAB and the lady there even cried WITH me.  So for every time I was 1p over I owe them the whole months carers allowance back and it runs into thousands.  I've had sleepless nights.  It would cost thousands per month of tax payers money to put my son into residential.  I never had a fair hearing and I pay it back monthly

kaMelo

whizzywoo said:

I can't understand why DWP does not average out these irregular wages!
Several years ago, before I hit State Pension Age I was self-employed on a part-time basis whilst caring for my husband.
My taxable profit for the year was averaged out once a year by DWP to make sure I was below the earnings limit for Carer's Allowance.  I think in the first 12 months they asked for the figures quarterly but after that it was once a year.  
If they could do it for me why can't they do it for employed earners?

There is a possibility of averaging but the qualification, as I understand it, is that the hours worked need to be irregular.

The couple of posts earlier relating to working term time in schools don't qualify for averaging because whilst the wages paid vary throughout the year, the contracted hours don't

If someone was on a zero hours contract and worked varying hours each week then they should qualify for averaging.