Overview
- The DWP will review overpayment decisions for hundreds of thousands of claimants dating back to 2015 after Liz Sayce’s report found systemic errors and unclear guidance.
- Ministers say penalties wrongly issued to carers will be cancelled or reduced, though there will be no general compensation for those affected.
- Reassessment will prioritise cases involving fluctuating earnings, after tribunal rulings for carers including Andrea Tucker and Nicola Green highlighted policy flaws since 2020.
- At least 144,000 carers are repaying more than £251m, with total wrongful carer’s allowance payments since 2019 estimated at over £357m.
- Failures to warn claimants despite near real-time earnings data and a 1p-over weekly threshold that wipes out a week’s entitlement led to large debts and prosecutions, and the status of past convictions remains unresolved.