To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many debts of overpayments of Carer's Allowance his Department was seeking to recover in value brackets (a) £0.01 - £500, (b) £500.01 - £1,000, (c) £1,000.01 - £5,000, (d) £5,000.01 - £20,000 and (e) over £20,000 as of 6 April 2024.
Answered on
19 April 2024
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. However, we seek to do so without causing excessive hardship. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance Debt Value Grouping | Volume of Carer’s Allowance Debts |
£0.01 - £500.00 | 61.9k |
£500.01 - £1000.00 | 29.7k |
£1000.01 - £5000.00 | 53.2k |
£5000.01 - £20,000.00 | 11.3k |
Over £20,000.00 | 0.3k |
Total | 156.3k |
The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Data is taken as a snapshot as at 03/04/2024, the closest date we can obtain to 06/04/2024. |