It has recently been revealed that the DWP (Department Of Work And Pension) has profited by almost £5 million in the last four years directly from fining unpaid carers £50 each when they’ve been found to have been overpaid.

This is as well as being in receipt of £400,000 in penalties which were paid by carers to avoid facing prosecution.

So it comes as no surprise that Carers that considered appealing against overpayments are then threatened with even higher bills if they do so.

Not a surprise to anyone that’s had any dealings with the DWP

In over half the overpayment cases the failure of the DWP to act when warned by an HRMC system that these carers were over the earnings limit. Basically the DWP made the choice to ignore the warning and let the overpayments increase to enable them to benefit financially.

However promises made by the DWP to MPs to rectify this five years ago were as usual an empty promise. They failed to do nothing except continue to enable carers to become in debt and threatened with fines if they appeal their cases.

There’s no limit to the level of underhanded tactics and deceit that the DWP will lower themselves to whilst trying to benefit financially from the suffering of others.

Carers should be respected and instead of fining them they should be given larger payments for the hard work that they do and not be targeted by the DWP especially given the fact that they save the government thousands of pounds, possibly millions each year.

We need to support or advocate for carers’ rights and raise awareness of the need for this.

Shame on you DWP.