I wanted to provide you with an update on our campaign calling for an end to the devastating Carer’s Allowance overpayments that many carers are sadly facing, which continues to make headlines in the media. 

In response to parliamentary questions we asked Margaret Greenwood MP to table, the Government released new data last Friday showing it was attempting to recoup Carer’s Allowance overpayments from 156,000 unpaid carers, with around 11,600 of these carers involving carers with debts of over £5,000. 

This is simply unacceptable and urgent action is now required.

To help raise awareness of the issue, we have today launched a new petition calling on the Government to urgently review and reform Carer's Allowance, to increase the financial support available to carers and to reduce overpayments.

We need your help to ensure we get as many signatures for the petition as possible. You can add your name today by clicking the button below, and please also share the link widely with your contacts and any carers you work with. If we get to 10,000 signatures there is a good chance we will be able to secure another parliamentary debate on the issue.

If you would like to share the petition on social media, please find a suggested tweet below:

@CarersUK have launched a new petition calling for urgently reform of Carer's Allowance to ensure it properly supports carers and puts an end to the devastating overpayments over 150,000 carers are currently facing. Add your name today! https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/660485

To ensure we have the evidence we need to argue for changes to be urgently made by the Government, we are also asking carers to share their experiences of dealing with overpayments with us, so that we can put together a dossier of carers’ experiences.

If you know of any carers who have experienced a Carer’s Allowance overpayment and would be happy to share your story with us, we would be very grateful if you could ask them to complete the short survey that we have launched by clicking the button below.

Once we have this evidence, we will anonymise it before sharing it with the Government and other senior parliamentarians – to demonstrate the devastating impact overpayments can have on carers’ lives.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that on Monday 22 April, a debate was held in parliament on Carer’s Allowance. MPs from different parties spoke about the urgent need for Carer’s Allowance to be reformed, with all of the policy changes we have recently called for being raised. You can watch the debate back here, or access a transcript here.

The DWP Minister, Mims Davies MP, was also questioned by the Work and Pensions Select Committee about Carer’s Allowance and overpayments on Wednesday 24 April. You can watch this session back here.

Thank you in advance for your support. Together, we can advocate for real change for carers.

If you have any questions about our campaign, please don’t hesitate to contact policy@carersuk.org.

Kind regards,

Tamara Sandoul

Head of Policy and Public Affairs
Carers UK