A great piece. The thing that struck me as much as anything else, is the part where Sara stuffs the letters in the drawer. Effectively that is what ministers & policymakers have equally been guilty of. Stuffing the issue into an invisible place, not acting to change this. #carers

Number of asylum seekers and refugees left homeless after Home Office eviction soars - up to 3,290 households by Autumn 2023, finds Refugee Council 🧡 theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/a… via Diane Taylor

Carer's allowance scandal latest: 'They are just not interested in explanations. It doesn’t matter what you say... They just want the money': Josh Halliday talks to an unpaid carer forced to pay £5k for a minor breach of carer's benefit earnings rules theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

'Sara once thought the welfare state was on the side of people like her... She now knows it is a cruel welfare state, that punishes those it could support': very good piece by Professor Sue Yeandle on the carer's allowance repayment scandal centreforcare.ac.uk/commentary/202…

This is what real benefit fraud looks like, an organised gang of foreign nationals with 'benefit factories' using stolen identities & forged documents.

Not some old lady who cared for her mum and did too many hours in her minimum wage job.

news.sky.com/story/watch-cr…

To a first order of approximation, 'unpaid care' *is* social care. Women looking after partners, parents or adult children is the iceberg under the water, holding up the formal social care 'system' that almost all policy and media discussion focuses on.

Tell us your story: Unpaid carers - have you faced prosecution, or been forced to repay large sums as as result of inadvertently running up carer's allowance 'overpayments'? Have you attempted to appeal the demand for repayment?theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

'Carer’s allowance often seems to be an afterthought for policymakers. This is symptomatic of unpaid care’s low status.' Good The Guardian leader on the carer's allowance repayment scandal theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

🚨NEW: Former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith urges ministers to pause fines of unpaid carers

Big intervention after The Guardian ⁦Patrick Butler⁩ series this week. Story with ⁦Eleni Courea⁩ 👇 theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

The deliberate and cynical destruction of Sure Start stands out - against stiff competition - as one of the worst long-term policy decisions taken by a British government in recent decades.

Sure start (which IFS has also found yields huge savings on local hospital admissions BTW) was destroyed while respectable, centrist commentators gave respectful consideration to Cameron/Clegg rhetoric about moving from an obsession with equal outcomes to equal opportunity

You must be caring for someone for at least 35hrs a week to be eligible for Carer's Allowance. You get £81.90 - the equivalent of (at most) £2.34 an hour

Any overpayment debts owed by carers are dwarfed by the undervaluing of their contribution to society theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

Labour veterans call for return of Sure Start as new Institute for Fiscal Studies research reveals the early years programme generated significant improvements in the academic attainment of children from low-income backgrounds theguardian.com/education/2024… via Sally Weale and Pippa Crerar

Ministers are facing calls to abandon the “cruel and nonsensical” fines levied on tens of thousands of unpaid carers for unwittingly breaching earnings rules by just a few pounds a week. theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

“Cruel and nonsensical” : MPs urge reform of carers allowance penalties amid calls for ministers to publish buried official study examining impact of fines on carer's lives. By Josh Halliday, me, and Aletha Adu theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

Also highlights a crucial design flaw in Carers Allowance. There's no taper. You can earn £151 a week. If you earn £1 more you lose *it all*. Other benefits have a taper to encourage people to work as much as they can. Not Carer's Allowance. That's crazy. It can & should be fixed

📢 We're very keen to keep reporting on the DWP's prosecution of unpaid carers. If you know anyone affected, or have inside knowledge of the system, please do get in touch with myself or Patrick Butler in confidence.

DMs open. Email is: [email protected]

Strangely, Stride did not appear to understand that Carer's Allowance is NOT a means-tested benefit - suggesting it was right to pursue unpaid carers who claimed benefits while having over £16k savings. The only criterion for CA is you care for someone 35 hours a week.

Patrick Butler The Guardian It’s the hassle of doing the sums, earnings limit is now £151, min wage is £10.42 so you can work 14 hours before you’ll lose carers allowance but if min wage rises you need to drop hours, sometimes the job is the only thing keeping you sane from the 35 hours @ £4.31/hr