Unpaid carer to challenge DWP allowance overpayment penalty in court ‘It takes the little people to stand up,’ says Andrea Tucker, who was told to repay £4,600 after caring for mother for 15 years.
Tucker’s case highlights the controversial issue of “averaging” whereby carers are penalised by the DWP for breaching weekly earnings limits even though their average net earnings over a month or a year are within the rules.
An unpaid carer is to challenge in the courts an “unfair and nonsensical” demand by welfare officials to repay £4,600 in carer’s allowance overpayments, five years after being advised by the same department she was following benefit rules correctly.
Davey, himself an unpaid carer for his teenage son John, has called on ministers to write off Tucker’s benefit debts and suspend all carer’s allowance overpayment demands until the conclusion of the independent government-commissioned review of the benefit, expected in the summer.
A DWP spokesperson said: “This government understands the struggles carers are facing, which is why we have launched our independent review of carer’s allowance to explore how overpayments have occurred and what changes can be made to reduce the risk of them accruing in the future.
