DWP to reassess hundreds of thousands of cases in carer’s allowance scandal

20 hours ago7 min read4 comments

The Department for Work and Pensions' decision to reassess hundreds of thousands of carer's allowance cases represents not merely a bureaucratic correction but a profound institutional failure, one that has systematically exploited the very individuals our social safety net was designed to protect. This damning official review, triggered by a year-long Guardian investigation, exposes a pattern of governmental maladministration that has left vulnerable, unpaid carers—overwhelmingly women—shouldering catastrophic debts as high as £20,000, with some even facing imprisonment for inadvertent overpayments.The scandal echoes the structural injustices of the Post Office Horizon IT debacle, where faceless systems crushed lives with impunity. These carers, performing labor of incalculable social and economic value, were plunged into hardship not through personal failing but through a labyrinthine system that failed in its most basic duty of care.The reassessment, while a necessary first step, must be viewed through a critical feminist lens: it is a reactive measure that does little to address the patriarchal underpinnings of a welfare state that undervalues care work. The personal impact is devastating; we hear stories of parents caring for disabled children now facing bankruptcy, of elderly spouses pushed to the brink, their financial security obliterated by demands for repayment of money they often did not know they had incorrectly received.This crisis stems from a cruel paradox where carers, whose eligibility is contingent on providing at least 35 hours of weekly care, can lose their entire entitlement if their earnings from other sources exceed a paltry threshold—a rule the DWP has enforced with draconian zeal while neglecting its own responsibility to cross-reference data with HMRC in a timely manner. The human cost is a searing indictment of a political culture that prioritizes fiscal suspicion over human dignity.As a feminist writer, I see this not as an isolated administrative error but as a symptom of a deeper societal sickness, where the invisible, emotionally taxing work of care is perpetually marginalized. True justice will require not only debt forgiveness and compensation for those harmed but a fundamental re-evaluation of how we value care in our economy and a complete overhaul of a system that currently punishes compassion with destitution.

#featured

#DWP

#carer's allowance

#government scandal

#maladministration

#debt

#reassessment

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