Carer’s Allowance: Repayments

Lord Cromwell Excerpts

Monday 29th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

Again, I thank the noble Lord for his work on this agenda. I very much recognise the sentiment behind his comments. I think the important thing is that we allow the review to take place at speed, to really get to grips with and understand the problems and complexities that carers are facing, so we can come up with a way forward that is fair and sustainable for the people who have been caught up in this problem and make sure we have policies going forward to make sure it cannot happen again.

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

My Lords, this is a complex matter—as we have been told several times—but, surely, underneath it is something very simple. It is most unlikely that these people are going to be gaming the system, and proportionality of recovery has to be the core of the response.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I think it is absolutely right that proportionality is at the centre of this. We have to respect DWP officials to make sure that they look at the way this is handled and make sure every single case is dealt with fairly and in a sympathetic way. We have already heard today about the cliff-edge principle, which has already caused difficulties for carers, and we need to make sure, as far as we possibly can, that they have all the information, as well as regular review of their cases, to make sure people do not fall into this position again.