told to pay carers allowance back

my sister in law is carer for her 20yr old son and has been since he was about 3 yrs old. she took on a part time job 16 months ago and thought she was in the limits to carry on claiming her carers allowance. 2 months ago she received a letter stating that she was earning approx 52p a week too much. my brother contacted them and explained all her earnings. they said they would be in touch if needed. they heard nothing until the other day when the carers allowance failed to be paid into the bank account. on telephoning the benefits helpline they were told that they had worked out the she had definitely earned too much (£2.27 per calender month) and that her money had been stopped and she will have to pay back the money that she has claimed over the last 16 months - amounting to approx £3500. her work place is reducing her hours by 30 minutes each week so that she can claim again, but is there anything they can do about the £3500 that they are expecting to have to pay. this was a genuine mistake - not someone trying to work a fiddle.

sally e wrote:

my sister in law is carer for her 20yr old son and has been since he was about 3 yrs old. she took on a part time job 16 months ago and thought she was in the limits to carry on claiming her carers allowance. 2 months ago she received a letter stating that she was earning approx 52p a week too much. my brother contacted them and explained all her earnings. they said they would be in touch if needed. they heard nothing until the other day when the carers allowance failed to be paid into the bank account. on telephoning the benefits helpline they were told that they had worked out the she had definitely earned too much (£2.27 per calender month) and that her money had been stopped and she will have to pay back the money that she has claimed over the last 16 months - amounting to approx £3500. her work place is reducing her hours by 30 minutes each week so that she can claim again, but is there anything they can do about the £3500 that they are expecting to have to pay. this was a genuine mistake - not someone trying to work a fiddle.

I am happy in this case to give advice

she can take out a small pension and buy back years so for £3 a week over the last three years thats less than £500

half of a personal pension is an allowed expense so she would be in the clear IMO

once she has the pension she can ask the DM to look at it again and if she takes it to appeal she would have a good case as the tax man says you should fill in missing years as does DWP advice

sally e wrote:

my sister in law is carer for her 20yr old son and has been since he was about 3 yrs old. she took on a part time job 16 months ago and thought she was in the limits to carry on claiming her carers allowance. 2 months ago she received a letter stating that she was earning approx 52p a week too much. my brother contacted them and explained all her earnings. they said they would be in touch if needed. they heard nothing until the other day when the carers allowance failed to be paid into the bank account. on telephoning the benefits helpline they were told that they had worked out the she had definitely earned too much (£2.27 per calender month) and that her money had been stopped and she will have to pay back the money that she has claimed over the last 16 months - amounting to approx £3500. her work place is reducing her hours by 30 minutes each week so that she can claim again, but is there anything they can do about the £3500 that they are expecting to have to pay. this was a genuine mistake - not someone trying to work a fiddle.

If your sister-in-law took on part-time employment and she earned in excess of the earnings allowance, which is currently £100 a week for Carer's Allowance, there would be no further entitlement from the date she exceeded the threshold.

If there is an alleged overpayment, the DWP Carer's Allowance Unit should have issued a letter revising the CA entitlement decision and detailed the overpayment decision which should include all details of the sums overpaid. Your sister-in-law would have the statutory right to appeal either or both decisions which should be lodged within 28 days of the date of the decision letter.

Unless your relative can give valid reasons to prove that the alleged overpayment is not recoverable, she will have to repay the amount overpaid. Unfortunately, ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law.