On Saturday 27 April, Stephen spoke to Money Box on BBC Radio 4 about the Government fining carers who are unwittingly overpaid carer’s allowance. Stephen urged the Government to raise the limit and to notify carers when they breach it.
People who care for someone for at least 35 hours per week can receive £81.90 per week in carer’s allowance so long as they do not earn over £151 per week. However, The Guardian this week revealed that over 156,000 carers are being fined by the Department for Work and Pensions for unwittingly earning above the £151 limit.
Speaking to Money Box on BBC Radio 4, Stephen highlighted that the Department for Work and Pensions is often notified when someone breaches the £151 per week limit, through its Real Time Information system, but leaves carers to incur the debt without warning them. In dozens of cases, carers have built up debts worth over £20,000.
“The Government policy is to encourage carers into work but this system and this danger of overpayments makes it very risky to be working while claiming carer’s allowance,” Stephen said.
“[The Government should] uprate the carer’s allowance earnings limit in line with the national living wage, so someone claiming carer’s allowance in a fixed hours minimum wage job wouldn’t be pushed over the earning limit just earning a living wage.”