Read the following and then please answer this question: should I make an official complaint about the DWP’s Carers Allowance cock-up?

I received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions yesterday (February 10, 2025). In line with the DWP’s usual performance, it was dated December 31, 2024 and had been sent to a different address in my block of flats.

It was an apology for the DWP’s failure to process my attempt to cancel my claim for Carers Allowance, back in July last year – seven months ago.

So long-term readers may recall me writing about this in October last year, when I stated:

When phoning the Carers Allowance section of the DWP, either to give details of earnings over the permitted amount or to sign off the benefit, claimants are told that it is better and more immediate to provide the information online.

But I have been told that if a claimant does this, then absolutely nothing is done about it and nobody who should be told about it is actually informed.

I know this because I tried to quit Carers Allowance back in July, but nothing was done about it for several months. I eventually had to ignore the advice not to provide the information by phone – and am still waiting to hear when the benefit will cease being paid.

In December I added:

Information sent to the Carers Allowance website is not read, despite claimants being told this is the best way to provide it.

This Writer discovered it the hard way, having tried to sign off the benefit in July. I was eventually taken off the books in October, after two telephone calls to the DWP.

The December 31 letter states: “I understand that you were advised by a telephony agent to report changes online” – no, the advice was on the DWP’s automated message that is provided to everybody who tries to phone the Carers Allowance Unit.

“I would like to clarify that customers can notify the Carers Allowance Unit (CAU) of a change in circumstances either by telephone, by letter, or by using the online service.” Perhaps the automated message given to phone callers should reflect that, then (although, for all I know, it might have been changed by now. But I doubt it).

“Officials have been unable to confirm if you contacted the CAU by telephone first, before submitting your request for Carers Allowance to stop being paid… on 5 July 2024” – I contacted them by phone on July 5 last year, and used the gov.uk website to make the request immediately after hearing the message telling me that this was the best way of being noticed (ha ha).

“Unfortunately, the request to close your Carers Allowance claim was not picked up until you chased its progress on 17 October 2024 by telephone… The CAU has confirmed that it did not receive the electronic change of circumstances request submitted on 5 July 2024, until 4 November 2024.

“Unfortunately, the CAU has not been able to establish why this request was not actioned sooner, and I can only apologise for the delay and the inconvenience it has caused you.”

The letter concludes: “I would again like to apologise for the financial impact that the CAU’s delays have caused you. If you would like to raise a complaint about the way the DWP has performed, you can access the complaints process at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure.”

The letter also provides the correct contact email address for DWP ministers, which is [email protected].

I am minded to go ahead and make an official complaint – because of the context in which this catalogue of errors happened.

The DWP is currently pursuing thousands of carers for overpayments of large amounts of money – and undergoing an investigation into how it was possible for these overpayments to stack up to such large amounts before the claimants were pursued for them.

Having been through the process of trying to notify the DWP of changes, This Writer has a fairly clear idea of how it could have happened in at least a few cases; attempts to give notification of changes may have been ignored, as mine was.

I have no particular animosity towards the DWP over what happened to me – but I do think that I should record it as an official complaint for the sake of anyone else who has been caught in the overpayment trap through no fault of their own.

What do you think? If you are a carer who has been having trouble, please take note of the contact details I have provided above, by which you should be able to make your own concerns heard.

---

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here: