Carers UK is campaigning for reform to Carer’s Allowance, to ensure it better supports unpaid carers who balance paid work alongside their caring responsibilities. Too often, carers unwittingly go over the earnings limit for the benefit and accrue devastating Carer’s Allowance overpayments, sometimes amounting to thousands of pounds each year.
While this issue has been ongoing for some time and Carers UK has been calling for significant changes since 2018, this issue gained national attention in Spring 2024 when the scale of overpayments was widely reported in the media. In many cases, it took the Department of Work and Pensions years to notify carers that they had breached the earnings threshold, during which time debts grew. As a result, many carers with overpayments faced losing their Carer’s Allowance entitlement.
Carers UK has been calling for reform for over five years. We called for a number of fundamental changes to the DWP, and supported key recommendations made by the Work and Pensions Select Committee and the National Audit Office to reduce the size and volume of overpayments, and improve financial security for carers.
Independent Review of Carer’s Allowance overpayments
In October 2024, we welcomed the Government’s announcement of an independent review, led by Liz Sayce OBE, into how and why overpayments were accrued, operational changes to minimise overpayment risk and how the DWP can best support those with overpayments.
Over the past nine months, Carers UK has actively engaged with the review. We have facilitated meetings for Liz Sayce to meet with carers affected by overpayments, as well as organisations that support carers and welfare rights advisers.
Throughout the process, we have been clear that the review must deliver three key outcomes:
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New policies and processes must be put in place to ensure that there is accurate, transparent, and clear information so that carers can make informed decisions about workings and earnings.
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Internal DWP processes need to be changed to ensure that carers do not incur overpayments as a result of poor practice.
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Carers’ overpayment debts must be written off, where carers received overpayments through no fault of their own, or due to systematic failures by the DWP.
In July 2025, the Government received the final report from the independent review. The Government has confirmed that it is considering the report and will publish it, along with their response, by the end of the year. Carers UK has welcomed this approach.
Once the report is published, Carers UK will provide a full policy briefing, including our analysis of the report’s recommendations and our reaction to the Government’s response.
Share your experience
We are continuing to gather carers’ experiences of overpayments in relation to earnings and Carer’s Allowance here. They can be submitted by carers and advisers can add cases anonymously. This provides important continuing evidence of why we need change to see the system better meet carers’ needs.
If you have experience of an overpayment and would like to be involved in our campaigning work, please contact policy@carersuk.org
Campaign success: Increase to Carer's Allowance earnings threshold
Our work took a significant step forward with the announcement in the 2024 Autumn Budget that the earnings limit on Carer’s Allowance would increase to the equivalent of 16 hours at National Living Wage. This marks an unprecedented increase and, with the rise of National Living Wage from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour from April 2025, will result in one of the biggest increases in the earnings limit since the benefit was created in 1976.
From April 2025, working carers have been able to earn £196 per week without losing entitlement to Carer’s Allowance – an increase of around 30% from the previous earnings limit of £151. For the first time in decades, the earnings threshold will also be pegged to National Living Wage increases, ensuring that the earnings limit goes up in proportion to the National Living Wage.
Find out more
Campaigning on this area is part of a three-year project looking at some of the challenges that carers in employment can face when claiming Carer’s Allowance.
This project is funded by the Lloyds Bank Foundation and it aims to influence national policy and practice in relation to Carer’s Allowance and help make the social security system work better for unpaid carers. In particular, we are keen to influence change in the following areas:
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the way in which the earnings threshold for Carer’s Allowance operates. Some carers face a harsh penalty when unintentionally going over the earnings threshold
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the way in which carers interact with the Department for Work and Pensions when claiming Carer’s Allowance, particularly in relation to the earnings threshold
To underpin our campaign, Carers UK has conducted research to:
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examine the evidence and rationale for change, informed by carers’ lived experiences
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develop a stronger evidence base for campaigning on this issue
We are also working with carers and professionals to:
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improve information and advice for unpaid carers in relation to claiming Carer’s Allowance and combining it with paid work
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develop learning materials and increased awareness amongst local carer organisations on the earnings limit.
On 29 July 2024, Carers UK was pleased to meet with two Ministers, Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms MP, Minister for Social Security and Disability and Andrew Western MP, Minister for Transformation at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to share our report on Carer's Allowance overpayments. Ministers heard first-hand from four unpaid carers with experiences of overpayments.
Carers UK has been working with a variety of journalists to raise awareness of the issue of Carer’s Allowance overpayments. Carers UK and unpaid carers have been featured on several programmes covering the story over the pas year including Good Morning Britain, Money Box live and BBC Breakfast. We have also been featured in the Guardian, local radio stations and regional news outlets.
Carers UK also issued a number of comments about Carer’s Allowance overpayments:
Carers UK welcomes Carers Allowance earnings threshold increase in Autumn Budget, 30 October 2024
Carers UK responds to government plans to commission an independent review of Carer's Allowance overpayments, 16 October 2024
Carers UK to present Carer’s Allowance overpayments report to Minister detailing the experiences of unpaid carers, 29 July 2024
Carers UK respond to NAO letter to Work and Pensions Select Committee re Carers Allowance overpayments, 22 May 2024
Carers UK reaction to DWP research and Work and Pensions Select Committee recommendations on Carer’s Allowance, 16 May 2024
Carers UK reaction to DWP plans to text carers at risk of overpayments, 15 May 2024
Carers UK responds to Work and Pensions Committee discussion on Carer's Allowance, 24 April 2024
Support for Carers UK's Carer's Allowance overpayments campaign, 13 April 2024
Carers UK responds to news reports of Carer's Allowance overpayments case, 11 April 2024
Halt Carer’s Allowance overpayments
Despite the establishment of the review, we are concerned that the number of carers facing overpayment debts continues to rise. Comparing DWP figures for May 2024 and February 2025, the total number of outstanding overpayments has increased by over 9,000, with 143,922 carers affected.
In response, Carers UK and 109 other organisations wrote to the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall MP, calling for an immediate halt to new overpayment debts until the review had concluded and its recommendations implemented.
The letter also asked that Government commit to publishing the final report from the independent review promptly after receiving it implements its recommendations quickly, and looks to write off existing substantial overpayment debts where carers could have been notified sooner by DWP. You can read the full letter here.
You can read the Government's response to the joint letter here.
Read our report on Carer's Allowance overpayments.
