Carers in Britain may wait for compensation until 2054 — Carers UK
In the United Kingdom, unpaid carers who were assessed overpayments of state benefits may have to wait until 2054 for their money to be returned. This was stated by the charity Carers UK, which assessed the pace of case reviews by the UK Department for Work and Pensions. The department is reviewing around 200,000 cases of Carer’s Allowance recipients, and approximately 25,000 people may receive full or partial compensation, The Guardian reports.
Case reviews
The procedure began in April and concerns cases in which the department broke the law by not allowing carers with irregular earnings from part-time work to average their income over a year. This could lead to penalties for exceeding the earnings limit.
Last week, Social Security Minister Stephen Timms told parliamentarians that 3,000 cases had already been reviewed under the £75 million programme. According to him, the department is meeting the planned deadlines.
Carers UK said that only 1.5% of the projected number of cases has been processed so far. According to the organisation’s calculations, at the current pace, the review will take 27 years. It is currently unknown whether any carers have received compensation.
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Debts due to overpayments
An official review previously found that systemic failures in the work of the Department for Work and Pensions had led to debts accumulating among hundreds of thousands of Carer’s Allowance recipients. In some cases, the amounts reached £20,000, although this was not the recipients’ fault.
In 2025–2026, more than 30,000 additional overpayments were assessed, including 78 worth more than £20,000. Last year, official statistics showed that 144,000 carers continued to repay debts from overpayments accumulated over several years.
A ministry representative said that the department plans to complete the review within the previously announced three years. To do this, it is recruiting and training new decision-makers and gradually increasing the programme’s resources.
