Thousands of carers who were overpaid their allowance may face decades paying back what they owe – according to a spending watchdog.
In a few cases, repayments are being sought for over £20,000 – which could potentially take someone as long as 34 years to pay off – the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
The DWP detected 93,000 overpayments in 2018-19 compared with an average of 41,000 a year it detected in the previous five years, the NAO said.
While many overpayments were for one week, in some cases they went on for more than a decade before they were discovered.
Those who support carers said they are dealing with the financial repercussions of being overpaid on top of the demanding responsibilities of looking after others.
The NAO said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is now detecting more overpayments because it has recently put in place more staff and new systems, and is resolving backlogs created by previous shortages of staff.
Frank Field, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, urged the DWP to “end this massive scandal” and “write off the overpayments it has allowed to build up unchecked”.
He said: “Not for the first time, we see DWP squeezing those least able to afford it.
“It will chase down carers who provide such an immense service to our society, potentially cutting their income for decades – when it knows that a large part of the responsibility lies squarely at its own door.
Carer’s Allowance is paid to people who care for those on a qualifying disability benefit.
The DWP pays £66.15 a week in the allowance to people who earn less than £123 a week and provide at least 35 hours of care a week to someone who receives qualifying disability benefit.
Emily Holzhausen, director of policy and public affairs at charity Carers UK, said: “Overpayments of Carer’s Allowance have been causing a lot of stress for carers who are worrying about the financial repercussions on top of demanding caring responsibilities.”
Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister who is now director of policy at Royal London, said: “DWP should recognise its own culpability in this mess and consider a much more humane approach to overpayments, with greater use of write-offs.”
A DWP spokesman said: “We are committed to preventing fraud and error in the benefit system and we welcome that the NAO’s report recognises the significant progress we have made addressing Carer’s Allowance overpayments.
“The amount overpaid represents just 0.5% of total benefit expenditure.
“We have introduced new technology to prevent overpayments and improve debt recovery.
“And we continue to make people fully aware of their responsibility to correctly report earnings and changes of circumstances.
“We have a duty to the taxpayer to recover money in cases of fraud or error but safeguards are in place to ensure deductions are reasonable.”
The Daily Mirror’s Fair Care For All campaign calls for carers to be paid a Living Wage, for a national commission on funding the care revolution and the creation of a National Care System.
