Revealed: DWP still allowing unpaid carers to run up debts despite being told about overpayments

Chris Farrell said anxiety over the continued benefit payments in his bank account left him distressed and unable to move on with his life. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Chris Farrell said anxiety over the continued benefit payments in his bank account left him distressed and unable to move on with his life. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian Revealed: DWP still allowing unpaid carers to run up debts despite being told about overpayments Chris Farrell was given benefit for six months despite his repeated requests for payments to stop A former unpaid carer has urged welfare officials to “get their act together” after they continued to pay him carer’s benefit for six months after the death of his husband, potentially landing him with debts of more than £1,300. Chris Farrell, 65, who claimed carer’s allowance for four years while providing full-time care for his late husband repeatedly tried to get the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to stop paying him the £86.45 a week benefit. Farrell said his anxiety over the growing benefit payments in his bank account – and uncertainty over whether he would be punished despite following the rules – had left him distressed and unable to move on with his life. The DWP said on Friday it would write off Farrell’s overpayment – meaning he does not have to pay back the carer’s allowance income paid to him as a result of official error – after the Guardian approached officials with details of his case. The Guardian is aware of five other cases where carers said they were unable to stop carer benefit payments despite informing the DWP that they were no longer caring and neither wanted nor were eligible for the benefit. DWP pursued woman’s employer for nonexistent ‘benefit debt’ Read more A carer served an overpayment demand – a request to return benefit income wrongly paid as a result of what officials deem is carer error – would have to repay it along with a £50 civil penalty fine. In extreme cases they would be at risk of fraud charges. “The death of my husband was a hard enough blow to deal with. This was made so much worse by having to repeatedly tell DWP to stop paying the allowance – it was a constant reminder of my life ‘stopping’ for four years while I was a full-time unpaid carer for him,” said Farrell, who said he would donate the money to a food bank. He added: “The DWP needs to get its act together to ensure when a claimant advises them of a change in circumstances they action the information efficiently so overpayments and potential penalties are not left hanging over someone who tries to do the right thing.” Alongside the stress for carers, the cases raise concerns taxpayer money is being misspent – and potentially having to be written off – because of DWP failure to routinely act on reported changes in circumstances. Cases identified by the charity Carers UK include: A carer who has accumulated more than £2,000 of unwanted carer’s allowance since their mother