DWP threatens unpaid carers with prosecution over minor breaches of benefits ... trends now
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has threatened tens of thousands of unpaid carers with prosecution over minor breaches of benefits rules.
It comes as the department has come under fire for allowing Britain's biggest-ever benefits fraudster gang to rake in £54million and live the high life for years.
The difference between the two cases has raised eyebrows and the DWP has faced accusations of focusing on pursuing the wrong people.
One shocking example of a carer being pursued by the department is Helen Grater who was penalised for working an extra shift per week at her Sainsbury's job.
She took unpaid leave from her low-paid job in 2018 to look after her dying long-term partner following his diagnosis of throat cancer and lung disease.
Another shocking case of an unpaid carer being pursued by the DWP is Vivienne Groom who was taken to court by the department to seize £16,000 worth of inheritance from her. Groom had been awarded the state handout in 2014 to help her care for widowed great grandmother Maud, who needed a wheelchair (both are pictured)
The DWP has come under fire for allowing Britain's biggest-ever benefits fraudster gang to rake in £54million and live the high life for years. Two of the Bulgarians criminals - Galina Nikolova, 38, and Stoyan Stoyanov, 27 - pictured together in 2020 while on holiday in Turkey
One of the Bulgarians criminals mobile phones was seized and officers found a video showing the fraudsters showering their flat with hundreds of £20 notes
Ms Grater, 55, began getting the £64.80 a week in carer's allowance so she could look after him full-time, but it only amounted to around £1.85 per hour of care she provided.
Eventually she was able to return to work but she did not tell the DWP about her modest increase in earnings because her universal credit had been reduced automatically.
But despite the mistake being an honest one, the DWP told her she had been fraudulently claiming the carer's allowance by failing to notify the government that she had taken on a third shift a week.
Ms Grater had exceeded the then-earnings limit of £120 a week by a small amount by choosing to go to work.
The decision had pushed her over the DWP's cliff edge limit - landing her with a bill for £5,738.40.
This is because unpaid carers are forced to pay back the entirety of their carer's allowance for every week they were in breach of the earnings limit, even if they exceeded it by only £1.
The rule caused Ms Grater to have to pay back almost two years' worth of carer's allowance.
Groom initially made her carers' allowance claim in April 2014 when she was not working. She is pictured with husband Geoff
After Maud died in 2021, aged 91, the DWP launched a probe and found Groom had not been entitled to all the benefit (Maud is pictured)
A judge told Groom last year he 'understood' she had found the benefit system 'difficult to understand' (Groom and her husband Geoff are pictured)
After she discovered the bill Ms Grater phoned the DWO to explain what had happened but said after many desperate phone calls they were not sympathetic.
She told the Guardian: 'I said: 'Can we not discuss this and I can explain what's going on?' but they're just not interested in explanations. It doesn't matter what you say.
'They don't really care. They just want the money. They fob you off and fob you off and then you give up. It's absolutely disgraceful.'
She said she had tried to save the government money by looking after her partner herself, but said the experience with the DWP means next time one of her family is ill she will let them pay for a carer.
Another shocking case of an unpaid carer being pursued by the DWP is Vivienne Groom who was taken to court by the department to seize £16,000 inheritance from her.
It had previously taken the part-time supermarket worker to court and successfully prosecuted her for benefit fraud for breaches between 2014 and 2019.
The DWP used proceeds-of-crime laws – normally used to seize cars and property owned by convicted major criminals – to take the money her mother had left her, despite Ms Groom having cared for before she died.
A 2019 inquiry into overpayments of carer's allowance by MPs concluded that the vast majority of earnings-related issues were down to 'honest mistakes' by carers.
Another shocking case of an unpaid carer being pursued by the DWP is Vivienne Groom (pictured) who was taken to court by the department to seize £16,000 worth of inheritance from her
Groom had been looking after her frail great grandmother Maud who died in 2021, aged 91 (pictured)
The report also stated that administrative failures by the DWP meant the errors were not picked up before they spiralled into huge overpayments.
The cases of Ms Grater and Ms Groom stands in contrast to a gang of five Bulgarians who pulled off Britain's biggest ever benefits fraud raking in almost £54million after using thousands of fake ID claims to fuel their luxurious lifestyles.
The crooks, who now face years in jail, used a combination of fake identities and real customers to make roughly 6,000 fraudulent Universal Credit claims during a four-and-a-half year spree, operating out of three 'benefits factories' in north London.
One of the hubs was behind a functioning corner shop selling groceries. The group appeared to be hiding in plain
