Government responds to damning review of Carer’s Allowance overpayments
3 mins read
Tuesday 25 November 2025
The the long-awaited findings of an independent review into Carer’s Allowance overpayments has been published today.
The Sayce review is damning in its conclusions, finding that large numbers of carers were left facing huge overpayments because of the Department for Work and Pension’s (DWPs) own failures. This has had a very profound impact on many families, causing widespread financial and emotional distress.
The report which was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, confirms that in very many cases, overpayments were caused not by any failure on the part of individual carers, but by problems with the DWP’s own systems.
The complexity and inconsistency in the DWP’s own rules for calculating earnings left many claimants in a situation where they may have known there was an earnings limit but had no way of identifying whether or not they were exceeding it or what exactly they needed to report. Flawed guidance on averaging earnings only made problem worse – as did systemic delays in the DWP acting on information provided by HMRC about individual carers earnings.
What’s the government’s response
In its response to the review, the government has acknowledged that carers were let down by flawed DWP guidance on averaging of earnings between 2015 and 2025. It has promised to carry out a reassessment exercise for affected carers next year and has said that where this results in a lower overpayment figure, a carer will have their debts reduced or cancelled entirely, with the Government refunding any money already repaid.
The Sayce review findings reflect Contact’s Counting the Costs 2024 research which found those of you getting Carer’s Allowance, 1 in 10 had been overpaid and on average they had to repay the benefits office £1,045. A quarter of families told us they had contacted the Carer’s Allowance unit about changes in their wages, but the information wasn’t updated in time. And, despite being a vital source of income for carers under enormous physical, emotional and financial pressure, half of families with a disabled child who had had to pay back Carer’s Allowance, told us they had stopped claiming the benefit as a result.
While the recommendations made in the Sayce report will be very welcome news for affected families, the independent review made 40 proposals for improvements in Carer’s Allowance. Contact will respond in more detail in the coming days, once we have had a chance to fully consider the detailed recommendations in the report and the government’s response.
Looking for more information about Carers Allowance?
You can find lots of information and advice about Carer’s Allowance on our website.
