DWP owes claimants £1,300 and aims to process payments ‘quickly’

The Department for Work and Pensions has been criticized for “dithering” with an unpaid carer who was owed £1,300 in carer’s allowance. The DWP has been criticized by a complainant who hit out in a letter to the Guardian newspaper’s consumer affairs section.

The complainant said: “There is currently a discussion about the obligation of people who have to repay their carer’s allowance because they have exceeded the earnings threshold. I have the opposite problem. I am a carer for an adult son with autism and depending on his circumstances I sometimes work. , and sometimes they stay at home and claim carer’s allowance.

“I worked over Christmas and as always informed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as my pay was over the earnings threshold. I applied again in January when the work ended. Four months later he still hasn’t made a decision and I have to survive on a credit card racking up debt that I will struggle to pay back.

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The author, known only as JN, from Fareham, Hampshire, sparked a response from the DWP. It said: “We have apologized for the delay and have awarded her Carer’s Allowance and will pay the arrears.” It said it aims to process applications “as quickly as possible”.

Responding to the story, one reader said: “Performance wise it’s bad. Punishing the poor and sick is not a flaw in the system, it is the system.” A second runs: “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. As if being a carer wasn’t stressful enough.”

“Too much complexity in the system. So it takes an age to apply and an age to process. If the government wanted to make rapid progress in these departments and HMRC, they would simplify benefits and tax. Kill two birds with one stone -one stone – service and staff and probably a third, probably a more efficient system,” said another.

“Save the complex fees for those that apply to (large and multinational) companies and the very wealthy and have dedicated staff for that. Benefits, taxes for ordinary individuals and most companies should be super simple.”