Page 94, the Private Eye podcast.

Hello and welcome back to our mini series for the Paul Foot Awards.

We're speaking every day this week to a brilliant journalist or team of journalists

shortlisted for this year's Paul Foot Award.

So without any further ado, let's get on with today's mini episode and find out who is up for the award today.

I'm Patrick Butler. I'm the social policy editor

at The Guardian. I'm Josh Halliday, the North of England editor, The Guardian. And what's the story

that has brought you to the Paul Foot Awards? We call it's carers allowance scandal. This is a story

about injustices in the benefit system. It's about how those injustices have inflicted debt and misery and untold

stress on some of the most vulnerable and poorest people in our society who has devoted their

lives to looking after loved ones. Careers allowance is probably the least well known,

and it's definitely the least valuable benefit you can claim.

I mean, last year, joined the bulk of the time that we're covering,

the scandal it was £83 a week.

How do you qualify for that benefit?

You qualify for carer's allowance if you provide full-time

care for a loved one, could be your partner, your mother, your child, who has a disability or is frail

or chronically ill. And you have to provide care for 35 hours a week. About £2 an hour?

Roughly.

These payments are administered by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Yeah.

So we're dealing with people who've been receiving carers allowance and then they're

...