DWP clawing back £9,000 from people after realising 'they weren't entitled'

The DWP has demanded Richard Munson, 60, to repay the cash - with the benefits claimant telling the BBC his finances are now on a "downward spiral".

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has ordered a carer to repay £9,000 in benefits. The DWP has demanded Richard Munson, 60, to repay the cash - with the benefits claimant telling the BBC his finances are now on a "downward spiral".

The football steward from Suffolk, who cares for his disabled wife, eceived weekly Carer’s Allowance payments from the end of 2020 to the middle of 2023 after giving up his full-time job to care for his wife. But he was told last September he was no longer entitled - and owed £6,800 - because he failed to inform them about his part-time job.

After he queried the claim, the department investigated - and eventually told him he owed EVEN MORE at £8,523. He said: “They overpaid me, I can accept that, but what really gripes me is they took three years to realise they were paying me something I was not entitled to.

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"They also gave me a £50 penalty for 'falsely claiming', which I didn't, not knowingly anyway. There’s an attitude in this country that if you’re on benefits you are a scrounger but there’s a hell of a lot of people who need those benefits and are genuine.

"The benefits system is a minefield and heavily stacked in favour of putting people off claiming.” He said: “Losing the Carer’s Allowance was bad enough but having to pay back the best part of £9,000… I’m now worse off than I was before I cashed in my pension.

“If they had notified me earlier this all could have been sorted without a problem – but now I’m going overdrawn every month and it's just on a downward spiral. Yes, I’ve had a pay rise this year but that is just wiped out overnight because everything is going up - I hardly ever go for a beer anymore because I can’t afford to.”