Sun.May 26, 2024

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‘It feels like contempt’: DWP tells 85-year-old dementia patient to repay £13k

The Guardian

Cypriot-born Sia Kasparis, who speaks limited English, was not told about disability premium overpayment for several years Eighty-five-year-old Sia Kasparis was in her hospital bed in the living room of her small north London flat when there was a knock at the door. The grandmother-of-five has been bedbound for the last two years, the result of a collapsed vertebra and a range of other health problems, including vascular dementia, heart failure and kidney disease.

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‘No one would accept blame’: Carers highlight DWP failures over debt crisis

The Guardian

Carers asked to repay sums as high as £20k say officials did not share eligibility information between departments Carers put through the wringer of carer’s allowance overpayments raise the same question time and again: they weren’t aware they had infringed benefit rules but welfare officials were. Why were they not told, rather than overpayments being allowed to run on for months, landing them with debts of thousands of pounds?

Welfare 21