DWP tweaks one of its benefits and hands claimants £196 cash boost

The Department for Work and Pensions has tweaked one of its benefits - handing claimants a £196 cash boost. Action has been taken by the Government by boosting the Carer’s Allowance earnings threshold by £45 a week to £196.

The move from the DWP will affect more than 60,000 carers by 2029/30. This is the biggest ever cash increase in the earnings threshold for Carer’s Allowance. In April, official figures showed 134,500 claimants were repaying carer’s allowance overpayments, totalling about £250m. Since then, thousands more have fallen foul of the rules and are paying back earnings-related overpayments.

Sir Stephen Timms said: “Left to their own devices, often encumbered with caring responsibilities, these carers saw debt surge. Readers of the Guardian will have seen some of the most extreme cases come to light where carers – to whom we owe much gratitude – are pursued for debts, sometimes totalling thousands of pounds.”

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He added: “We have seen reports of carers who were unaware of the rules, and intervention was not quick enough to stop them continuing to break them.” Helen Walker, the chief executive of Carers UK, said she was “delighted” to see the review getting under way.

“It is vital that we see changes implemented quickly so we can prevent as many overpayments as possible from happening in the first place, as well as reducing the size of the debt for unpaid carers, who are often living in very challenging financial circumstances,” she said.

Carer’s allowance, worth £81.90 a week, is claimed by just under 1 million unpaid carers in the UK who look after disabled, frail and ill loved ones for at least 35 hours a week. Most are women and a high proportion are in poverty, the Guardian has previously reported.

The changes were confirmed by the DWP last week.