Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been charged in penalties for overpayment of carers allowance in each of the last five years.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has two different financial penalties that can be imposed. The first is the Civil Penalty. Where our enquiries show that a claimant has failed to provide accurate information as part of their benefit claim or in connection with an award of benefit, they have not taken reasonable steps to correct the error and their action has resulted in an overpayment of over £65, DWP currently charges a £50 Civil Penalty.

The Second type of financial penalty is the Administrative Penalty, which may be offered to a person as an alternative to prosecution. Currently the minimum amount of the Administrative Penalty is £350 or 50% of the recoverable overpayment, whichever is greater, up to a maximum of £5,000.

It is not possible to provide the total value of administrative penalties imposed by DWP in the last 5 years as this information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.