Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Carer’s Allowance overpayment cases are being investigated by his Department; and if he will publish the level of overpayments being pursued, broken down into £1,000 ranges in the financial year 2023-24.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are currently 750 live cases where Carers Allowance is shown as the “primary” benefit under investigation.
We do not hold information on the size of any individual overpayment whilst the investigation process is taking place – this is not determined until the investigation is completed.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what financial threshold his Department (a) starts an investigation and (b) seeks overpayment recovery for Carer’s Allowance.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State has an obligation to protect public funds by tackling fraud and error and, where legislated, recover overpayments.
Specialist trained counter fraud investigators will consider a range of factors, including if a claimant is vulnerable, before starting an investigation. This includes if an overpayment is potentially above £3,000 or the person involved occupies a position of trust or has used false or forged documentation during their claim. DWP keeps these criteria under review.
Any overpayment of Carer’s Allowance that arose as a result of a failure to disclose or misrepresentation is recoverable under s.71 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. DWP does not recover new overpayments below £65 unless they have arisen due to fraud.
The Department is committed to negotiating affordable and sustainable repayment plans that do not cause undue financial hardship. We will work with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and encourage customers to contact DWP Debt Management. Debt Management will work with individuals to review their financial circumstances and, in most instances, a temporary reduction in their rate of repayment can be agreed.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to prevent large value overpayments from accruing for Carer’s Allowance since 2019.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Overpayments are recoverable from the Carer where there is evidence that the Carer failed to timeously inform the Department of changes in circumstances. The annual benefit uprating letter issued highlights the need to report changes such and changes in earnings. The Department also uses data from HMRC to indicate where the customer may have had a change in income and failed to inform us.
The Department also takes steps to avoid large scale overpayments that are not recoverable. This includes managing workloads at appropriate levels so changes in circumstance are processed timeously.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many overpayments his Department is seeking to recover for Carer’s Allowance due to (a) breaches to the earnings limit, (b) exceeding the limit for breaks from caring role in a given period, (c) not caring for 35 hours per week ,(d) other, (e) a combination of reasons and (f) overall.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise the significant contribution of carers to supporting those most in need, which is why we have increased Carer's Allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010.
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award.
Where overpayments do occur, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance overpayment reason | Volume of overpayments as at 25 April 2024 |
Earnings over CA Limit | 107.6k |
Break in care | 3.6k |
Ceased to care/ Not Caring from Outset | 23.2k |
Other | 18.9k |
Total | 153.3k |
Note that the overpayment reasons for which you have requested breakdowns do not directly align with our Debt Manager system’s overpayment categories. We have provided the reasons which most closely reflect those requested. We are unable to provide data for overpayments caused by “a combination of reasons”, as this is not a category available/ recorded by DWP. Overpayments with values of £0.00 have been excluded. Data is taken as a snapshot as at 25 April 2024 and the figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.
The data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many alerts from the Verified Earnings and Pensions service informing his Department of carers’ earnings information were (a) passed and (b) not passed on to carers in each of the last five years; and whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of VEPs in preventing large value overpayments for Carer's Allowance.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Rounded | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
The number of CA cases identified through the VEP system | 91,000 | 73,000 | 96,000 | 107,000 | 67,000 |
The number of cases reviewed by CA | 35,000 | 38,000 | 46,000 | 50,000 | 35,000 |
Overpayments are recoverable from the Carer where there is evidence that the Carer failed to timeously inform the Department of changes in circumstances. The annual benefit uprating letter issued highlights the need to report changes such and changes in earnings. The Department also uses data from HMRC to indicate where the customer may have had a change in income and failed to inform us.
The Department also takes steps to avoid large scale overpayments that are not recoverable. This includes managing workloads at appropriate levels so changes in circumstance are processed timeously.
Caveats
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many potential cases of overpayments of carer’s allowance were flagged by the Verified Earnings and Pensions service system in each of the last five financial years; and how many such cases were investigated in each of those years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Rounded | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
The number of cases flagged as potentially in need of investigation by the VEPs system | 91,000 | 73,000 | 96,000 | 107,000 | 67,000 |
The number of cases investigated | 35,000 | 38,000 | 46,000 | 50,000 | 35,000 |
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full time equivalent staff in his Department worked on investigation of earnings alerts for carer’s allowance in (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, (c) 2022-23, (d) 2022-23 and (e) 2023-24.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department allocated the following resources to full time equivalent to the investigation of earnings alerts for carer’s allowance as outlined below;
| FTE |
19/20 | 46.43 |
20/21 | 55.20 |
21/22 | 80.92 |
22/23 | 59.75 |
23/24 | 48.70 |
Data is correct as of March for each of the following Financial Years: (a) 2019/20, (b) 2020/21, (c) 2021/22, (d) 2022/23 and (e) 2023/24.
Figures were derived from the Department’s Activity Based Model (ABM), which provides Full Time Equivalent (FTE) figures based on point in time estimate by Line Managers. They cover only FTE of staff with paid employment.
The number of colleagues employed in these directorates is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. As the Department holds the information, we have released it.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the highest value overpayment has been for Carer’s Allowance in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to benefits they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award.
Where overpayments do occur due to not being entitled to the benefit, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents just 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below. To avoid potentially disclosing personal information, we have bucketed the values requested.
Highest Value Carer’s Allowance Overpayment | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Total | £60-70k | £30-40k | £40-50k |
The data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Note that the values represent the original overpayment amount when raised on Debt Manager. As the year relates to when the overpayment was raised as a debt for recovery, it does not necessarily relate to the period as to when benefit was overpaid. The overpayments above all span periods of many years.
Note that the data provided is for all categories of overpayment. It is not necessarily the case that these overpayments arose due to claimants breaching the earnings limit.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many carer’s allowance overpayments over (a) £5,000 and (b) £20,000 there were in (i) 2022-23 and (ii) 2023-24.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We recognise the significant contribution of carers to supporting those most in need, which is why we have increased Carer's Allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010.
As with all DWP benefits, claimants have a responsibility to ensure they are entitled to the benefit they claim and to inform the DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award. For Carer’s Allowance, eligibility is partly dependent upon claimants earning £151 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses. This is set out at: Carer's Allowance: Eligibility - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Where overpayments do occur due to not being entitled to the benefit, the Department has a duty to the taxpayer to protect public funds and to ask for money to be paid back. We remain committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms and will always look to negotiate sustainable and affordable repayment plans.
Our most recent statistics show that Carer's Allowance overpayments relating to earnings/employment represents 2.1% of our £3.3bn Carer’s Allowance expenditure.
The information requested has been provided in the table below.
Carer’s Allowance Overpayment Value Grouping | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
£5000.00 - £20,000.00 | 1,310 | 1,300 |
Over £20,000.00 | 60 | 40 |
Total | 1,370 | 1,340 |
The data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. It is not intended for publication and has not been subject to the same quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics.
Note that the year relates to when the debt was raised on Debt Manager, and therefore not necessarily the period as to when Carer’s Allowance was overpaid. The overpayments may span periods of many years.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how frequently HM Revenue and Customs provides his Department with earnings alerts on potential overpayments of carer’s allowance.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
HMRC provides DWP with 4 daily alerts to changes of earnings, based off a set of business logic/rules which covers Carers Allowance, Housing Benefit and Pension Credit. The earnings notified do not take account of allowable expenses which people in receipt of Carer’s Allowance may wish to deduct.