this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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It was three weeks after Christmas when the bombshell letter arrived. Guy Shahar and his wife, Oksana, looked at each other in stunned disbelief.

They had followed the Guardian’s investigation into the carer’s allowance scandal that has left thousands of families with crippling debts and criminal records. Not once did they think they would join them.

“Important,” it read in big bold type. “You have been paid more carer’s allowance than you are entitled to. You now need to pay this money back”.

In some weeks, she was paid just 38p more than the threshold – but for that tiny infraction she is being forced to repay £64.60 each time, the rate of carer’s allowance at the time.

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[–] perestroika@lemm.ee 106 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (8 children)

a breach of even 1p would trigger a fine of £83.30

Sounds extremely, extremely stupid. A breach of 1p should trigger repayment of 1p.

Also, a person should be notified at once, at the latest next month.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 19 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Also, why does the system even allow people to claim more than they are entitled? Is there no maximum set into the payment field or whatever they have for it?

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 10 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

In my experience, it's either total incompetence of the people in charge, or it's malicious in order to "catch" people doing something bad.

Like a bait car, but way more malicious since the person getting in the metaphorical car doesn't even know it's not their car because the keys worked, and nobody bothers stopping them for a few days so they get extra criminal charges.

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