A 64-year-old man from Lancashire has been convicted of fraud and lost his family home after making a single mistake on a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) form, highlighting a systemic failure within the Carer's Allowance system.
A Catastrophic Form Error
George Henderson, from Leyland in Lancashire, was caring for his 42-year-old son John, who has learning difficulties and is a heroin addict. When applying for Carer's Allowance, he incorrectly ticked a box stating he was unemployed. In reality, he was earning £7.50 an hour as a self-employed taxi driver.
This simple administrative error led to a catastrophic chain of events. The DWP determined that Henderson had been overpaid, accruing a debt of £20,000. The outcome was a fraud conviction and the devastating loss of his home.
Systemic Failures Exposed
The case emerges alongside a damning new report on the Carer's Allowance scandal. The review, authored by disability rights expert Liz Sayce, blames repeated failures by top DWP officials over a decade for not resolving known issues.
Sayce stated that problems with the allowance have led to profound injustice and poor use of public money, severely affecting carers' health, finances, and careers. "Overpayments over many years at this scale and impact, with missed opportunities to resolve them, are entirely unacceptable," she wrote.
She emphasised that the root cause is not widespread error by carers but systemic issues that prevent them from fulfilling their reporting responsibilities. Carers are left feeling shame, which she described as "the polar opposite of the recognition carer’s allowance aims to offer."
Government Response and Reassessment
In response to the scandal, the DWP has announced that hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers who accrued overpayments due to unsafe decisions will have their cases reassessed. In many instances, their debts will be cancelled or reduced.
The department has described the situation as a "mess inherited from the previous government." This action comes after many carers were hit with draconian penalties of up to £20,000 after unwittingly and unfairly building up overpayments.
