One among Rishi Sunak’s dementia advisers has resigned over the federal government’s method in direction of unpaid carers, describing the prosecutions of susceptible individuals as “past the pale”.
Johnny Timpson, who suggested No 10 on its dementia technique, mentioned he wished to “take a stand” after the Guardian revealed that tens of hundreds of unpaid carers have been being fined big sums and in some instances prosecuted for minor infringements of earnings guidelines.
The previous Cupboard Workplace adviser mentioned he had been “fairly disenchanted” with the Conservative authorities’s method in direction of individuals with disabilities for a while however this had now come to a head.
“The truth that we’ve made completely no progress in any respect on social care [and] we actually didn’t help carers adequately through the pandemic,” he mentioned. “However this newest factor – the method the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] are taking to reclaim advantages from carers and folks with disabilities, notably with neurological disabilities – is past the pale for me actually.”
The Guardian has in current weeks revealed and documented the despair and distress skilled by unpaid carers compelled to pay big fines – and typically prosecuted for fraud – after minor breaches of carer’s allowance earnings guidelines amounting to some kilos.
They embody a 92-year-old lady with superior Parkinson’s who was ordered to pay again almost £7,000 in incapacity allowance after failing to inform the division of a change in circumstances 5 years in the past when she was within the early phases of dementia. The DWP has mentioned it’s urgently reviewing her case.
Timpson, who was awarded an OBE in 2022, sat on the prime minister’s dementia pleasant communities champion group. He was beforehand a Cupboard Workplace incapacity ambassador.
He mentioned the DWP’s method to carer’s allowance was in breach of its personal coverage in direction of defending susceptible profit claimants. “The DWP has its personal susceptible buyer coverage and observe and fairly frankly it’s not following it,” he mentioned.
“We have now big regulatory concentrate on elementary buyer help in regulated sectors and the DWP is totally out of step with what’s taking place in non-public sector organisations – and actually nobody has been taken to account so I wished to take a stand and name this out.”
He mentioned the DWP had grow to be “too massive and too eliminated” and will doubtlessly be disbanded as a part of a wider reform of the welfare sector.
Individually, one of many authorities’s incapacity ambassadors, Kathryn Townsend, has described the DWP’s method as “extraordinarily regarding” and urged the division to instantly cease clawing again carer’s allowance overpayments.
Townsend, the incapacity ambassador for the banking sector, mentioned in a letter to the pensions minister Mims Davies that the experiences of unpaid carers being compelled to pay again big sums have been “extraordinarily regarding”. She added that they have been “growing the danger of economic and non-financial hurt confronted by these already susceptible people”.
The criticisms got here as Davies ready to face powerful questions from MPs on the Commons work and pensions choose committee on Wednesday.
The DWP has been approached for remark. A spokesperson beforehand mentioned: “Carers throughout the UK are unsung heroes who make an enormous distinction to another person’s life and we’ve elevated carer’s allowance by nearly £1,500 since 2010. Our most up-to-date statistics present that carer’s allowance overpayments referring to earnings represents 2.1% of the £3.3bn we spend supporting those that take care of family members.
“Claimants have a duty to tell DWP of any modifications of their circumstances that would affect their award, and with safeguards in place to handle repayments, this ensures equity in our welfare system.”