Carer’s Allowance: Overpayments

Debate between Baroness Pitkeathley and Baroness Sherlock

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I acknowledge the Government’s positive response to the recommendations in the independent review.

[The Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Sherlock) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government accept that between 2015 and summer 2025, the guidance on whether and how to average earnings in carer’s allowance did not accurately reflect the statutory position. We will therefore be reassessing earnings-related overpayment cases that occurred between 2015 and September 2025. Where it is found that overpayments were lower than originally calculated, carers will have their debts reduced or cancelled entirely, with the Government refunding any money already paid. We will set out plans for doing this in early 2026.

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that response and for her patience at my persistence. After the problems for carers were ignored for so long by the previous Administration, and after systems did not respond to the clear evidence about the distress caused, carers naturally have a high level of mistrust about how their benefits are administered. Does my noble friend agree that rebuilding that trust must be a priority and that any changes must be completely transparent, with carers consulted and informed at every step of the way?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that question and for her work. I pay tribute to the millions of unpaid carers across this country; the Government greatly value them and the work they do. Carers are also fortunate to have some excellent advocates, including many Members of this House—and I think we would probably all acknowledge that supreme among them is my noble friend, whose work in this area has for so very long been recognised by us all.

Carer’s allowance provides support to around 1 million people and, for most of those who receive it, the experience is positive and the rules are clear. But my noble friend is right that, when we came into government, it became clear that there were far too many cases where working carers had been left with large overpayments to be repaid. That is why we commissioned an independent review of earnings-related overpayments. We are very grateful to Liz Sayce for her recommendations, but also to her advisory panel and especially to the unpaid carers who shared their experiences to make that right. We have accepted or partially accepted 38 of the 40 recommendations in the report, we have begun working on many of them already, and we will set out the details in the new year. We will be very clear and transparent: many of the recommendations regard reviewing how we write to people, how we make things clear and how transparent we are. Above all, when the Government make mistakes, they should acknowledge them and put them right, and that is what we are doing.

Welfare Reform

Debate between Baroness Pitkeathley and Baroness Sherlock

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

Those are two great questions, and I thank the noble Baroness for them—and also for the phrase “retail is detail”, which I shall now deploy as though it were my own whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I am sorry for not picking up the question of fraud, because the noble Viscount asked about that as well. We have a fraud Bill coming to this House, which is making its way through the other place at the moment, so we are absolutely determined to crack down on fraud and will use a whole range of means for doing that. We will have an opportunity to discuss that in detail when the Bill arrives here.

We are thrilled that Charlie Mayfield is leading this review for us. We know that if we cannot get the relationship with employers right and create a system that works for employers and employees, we will not be able to get the jobs we need, especially for people who find it difficult.

To reassure the noble Baroness, if she looks at annexe A of the Green Paper, there is a table on Green Paper measures that gives timings on everything coming in. However, the real reassurance is that we have already started. For example, the changes to universal credit, assuming they get parliamentary approval, will start to come in from next April. But the work has already begun on supporting people into work. The Secretary of State has already announced an extra 1,000 work coaches to work with people who are sick or disabled to help them get into work. We know from past evidence that sometimes somebody simply spending a bit of time with somebody and encouraging them in can make all the difference straightaway. So we are starting on that already—we are not waiting for it to happen. We are already piloting around the country, as I said to the right reverend Prelate, trailblazers for young people and for the wider population on how we work with local councils. Sometimes, whether someone can get into work is not just about what we do; whether someone can get a job in Manchester might be about what the childcare is like, how the buses run between where the jobs are and where the homes are, and what the local labour market is like. We are working with metropolitan authorities and engaging locally to try to turn the system around and get everybody pointing in the same direction.

Finally, I really share the noble Baroness’s concern about the sustainability of the system, but I want to make sure that we are doing it to keep the system there for the future—because I believe passionately that we need a safety net there for those who struggle and who cannot work. We have to make sure that it works, and we are committed to making sure that everybody who has the most severe needs or will never be able to work will always get the support they need under this Government.

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, mentioned carer’s allowance. The Minister will know that many carers have disabilities and long-term conditions themselves, and caring itself is a risk factor for having to give up work. In their consultation on the Green Paper, therefore, will the Government commit to doing more for unpaid carers, particularly around enabling them to remain part of the workforce where they want to do so? So many of them do, as the noble Baroness knows.

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for raising that question and I apologise to my noble friend Lady Lister for having forgotten to deal with it in my response to her. I commend my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley for all that she does in this space. First, she knows more than anyone that we are investing in carers: we have just significantly raised the amount of money that somebody can earn before they will lose their carer’s allowance. We have also launched an independent review of carer’s allowance to make sure that the system works. The eligibility change will benefit 60,000 carers-plus by 2029-30.

My noble friend makes the excellent point that the overlap between caring and disability is sometimes more intertwined than we realise. Again, I reassure her that if somebody is on PIP, neither the carer nor the person being cared for will lose that money unless and until there is a reassessment and their eligibility is found to have changed. More than that, we made a specific commitment in the Green Paper to look carefully when considering the consultation responses at how we can support any unpaid carers who find they are affected by the changes that we are proposing. In light of that, I strongly encourage anyone such as her or people she may know to respond to the consultation, to engage with us and to make sure that we understand any unforeseen consequences and can think about how we deal with them.