The scandal of overpayments shocked many people this spring when it was widely reported in the media, yet it has been going on for some time. Many unpaid carers have been unwittingly building up huge debts, often as a result of going over the earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance by as little as a few pence per week. As a result, they lost all of their allowance and owed the Department for Work and Pensions, hundreds, thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of pounds. The huge overpayment debts were not built up overnight – in these cases it took the Department for Work and Pensions years to inform the carer that their earnings were over the limit.
