DWP advisor steps down as 34,500 claimants told to pay back benefits or face £20,000 fines

A leading government advisor has stepped down following reports that thousands of carers have been overpaid and subsequently faced large demands for repayments. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has sparked outrage after it ordered 34,500 people to return benefit payments, with potential fines of up to £20,000.

Advisor to Downing Street on its dementia strategy, Johnny Timpson, revealed his decision to "take a stand", as the Guardian unveiled that numerous unpaid carers faced substantial fines and occasionally legal cases due to minor breaches of earnings regulations.

The ex-Cabinet Office advisor expressed he has been "quite disenchanted" for a while with the Tory government's approach towards people with disabilities. Carers who accidentally exceed the weekly income limit of £151 by even just a penny while receiving Carer's Allowance have been ordered to pay back the entire week's benefit.

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According to the Guardian, more than 1,000 instances include repayment requests varying from £5,000 to £20,000. Among these is a 92 year old woman with late-stage Parkinson's disease who was instructed to reimburse almost £7,000 in disability allowance due to failing to report a change in circumstances five years past when she was at an early stage of dementia.

The DWP stated that it is urgently reviewing her situation, reports Wales Online. Timpson, honoured with an OBE in 2022, previously sat at the prime minister's roundtable on dementia friendly communities and held the position of the Cabinet Office disability ambassador.

Expressing his displeasure at the treatment meted out to carers allowance recipients, he pointed out that their own policy towards safeguarding vulnerable benefit claimants was being breached. "The DWP has its own vulnerable customer policy and practice and quite frankly it's not following it," he declared.

He further critiqued the considerable regulatory emphasis on fundamental customer support seen in regulated sectors, unlike in the DWP: "We have huge regulatory focus on fundamental customer support in regulated sectors and the DWP is completely out of step with what's happening in private sector organisations and really no one has been taken to account so I wanted to take a stand and call this out."

Finally, Timpson expressed his feeling that the DWP needed radical overhauling due to deteriorating service: "The fact that we have made absolutely no progress at all on social care [and] we really did not support carers adequately during the pandemic. But this latest thing the approach the DWP are taking to reclaim benefits from carers and people with disabilities, particularly with neurological disabilities is beyond the pale for me really."

Ian Duncan Smith, the former Tory work and pensions secretary, has joined calls for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to halt the repayment claims process and examine it "very carefully" In a discussion with the Guardian, he remarked: "The best thing is for the DWP now to pause any of these demands, review carefully what was behind all of this to make sure this was not mistakes by DWP but is genuinely about individuals failing to notify the department. The fact that we have made absolutely no progress at all on social care [and] we really did not support carers adequately during the pandemic. But this latest thing the approach the DWP are taking to reclaim benefits from carers and people with disabilities, particularly with neurological disabilities is beyond the pale for me really."

"The best thing is for the DWP now to pause any of these demands, review carefully what was behind all of this to make sure this was not mistakes by DWP but is genuinely about individuals failing to notify the department."

A DWP spokesperson responded: "Carers across the UK are unsung heroes who make a huge difference to someone else's life and we have increased carer's allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010."

They further stated: "Our most recent statistics show that carer's allowance overpayments relating to earnings represents 2.1 per cent of the £3.3bn we spend supporting those who look after loved ones. Claimants have a responsibility to inform DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award, and with safeguards in place to manage repayments, this ensures fairness in our welfare system."