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Andrea Tucker told the Guardian newspaper she was told to repay £4,600 after caring for her mother for 15 years.
An unpaid carer is set to challenge a Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) allowance overpayment penalty in court. Andrea Tucker told the Guardian newspaper she was told to repay £4,600 after caring for her mother for 15 years.
The a part-time charity shop worker who cared full-time for her mother for 15 years told the Guardian she was determined to get justice. “First I was upset, then I was angry, then it just wore me down. But it’s like the Post Office scandal – it takes the little people to stand up,” she said.
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.
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“The way DWP treated Andrea and thousands of carers like her makes my blood boil. The government urgently needs to get to the bottom of this and put things right for carers,” Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, told the Guardian.
The 57-year-old said she phoned the DWP in July 2019 to report she was taking a part-time job with irregular hours and was told she would not be penalised if her total earnings did not exceed carer’s allowance earnings limits.
But the DWP rules changed in 2020, where it banned 12-month retrospective arrangements – and Ms Tucker wasn’t informed. 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.
“We recognise overpayments have caused anxiety for people, that’s why it is important to take the time to independently review these circumstances so we can find out exactly what went wrong and make things right.”
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