DWP pursued woman’s employer for nonexistent ‘benefit debt’ | Carers
A woman who provides full-time unpaid care for her elderly, disabled mother says her job is in jeopardy after welfare workers are going after her employer for a non-existent “benefit debt” that was struck down by the courts nearly four years ago.
The 44-year-old said she was stunned when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) suddenly wrote to her employer earlier this month demanding it deduct the universal credit overpayment “debt” from her pay.
When the woman, known as Miss C, contacted the DWP to remind her that the overpayment had been rejected by a judge in 2022, officials said they had no record of the court order and asked her to send them a copy of it by post.
He said the DWP’s failure to halt the executive order, despite repeated pleas over the past two weeks, meant he had to ask his employers not to pay wages at the end of this month to avoid incorrect payment of the “debt”.
Ms C, who works in the financial services sector and has not claimed benefits for five years, told the Guardian the DWP’s chaotic and “institutionally careless” handling of her case left her feeling “punished for caring”.
He said: “As a carer, you are already juggling someone else’s life, health, safety, paperwork and dignity. It is frightening and exhausting when the department that is supposed to support vulnerable people instead creates errors, loses results, blocks practical avenues to provide evidence and imposes enforcement on your employer.”
“It also makes you feel invisible. The DWP treated it as if it were a small administrative debt. For me, this wasn’t just £163.73. It was my job, my professional reputation, my ability to care for my mother and my confidence that public bodies can keep accurate records on vulnerable households.
“This has nothing to do with money. It’s about how easily a legal decision can disappear within a system that has the power to contact your employer, damage your reputation and still maintain enforcement,” he added.
A government-commissioned independent review into carer’s benefit overpayments, published last year, said outdated computer systems, flawed internal communication between departments and poor access to historical records were “hindering effective management” at the DWP.
Ms. C, an auditor for a financial services firm, works from home, where she also cares for her mother, who is bedridden and has complex mental and physical problems. She has been her mother’s babysitter since she was 13 years old.
It said the DWP request, known as a direct earnings supplement declaration, would automatically trigger financial conduct compliance checks and potentially create reputational and professional issues.
The DWP made her first overpayment claim in 2021 after insisting she be paid a carer’s premium on top of her monthly universal credit payment, despite telling her several times via phone and diary that she did not want to receive the payment. A few weeks later the DWP removed it and apologised.
The DWP said it had a legal duty to get the money back, although it accepted that the overpayment was due to its own fault and Ms C was entitled to do so. Ms C appealed and the request was rejected by the first-tier court in September 2022.
The tribunal judge’s written decision rejected the DWP’s claim and said Ms C had not been overpaid. “The court found that [Ms C] “He was paid as much as he was entitled to, nothing else was done,” he said.
Ms C said she was refused carer’s payments when she claimed universal credit in 2021, even though she was entitled to it because it fell foul of the benefit’s notorious earnings rules due to her previous negative experience with carer’s pay.
The DWP has been contacted for comment
