Carers Allowance and HMRC helpline

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Money Box can reveal that the government is recouping more than £250m pounds from over 100,000 carers who it says broke the earnings rule and should have lost their carer's allowance. The numbers came from a Parliamentary Question this week asked by the chair of the work and pensions select committee, Twice as many women as men are being chased for these overpayments.

We hear from a carer who has around £5000 worth of debt as well as finding out more about rights for carers affected.

The Department for Work and Pensions told us, “The total amount of Carer’s Allowance overpayments includes historical debts which the department is seeking to recover. In comparison, Carer’s Allowance expenditure is forecast to be £4.2 billion this year alone.” “Carers across the UK are unsung heroes who make a huge difference to someone else’s life, and we have increased Carer's Allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010.”

Also on the programme, a report by spending watchdog the National Audit Office has revealed callers to HMRC helplines were on hold for a total of 789 years in 2022/23.

Are we saving enough for our retirement? Pensions and investment mutual Royal London gives Money Box exclusive figures.

And how do you spend a £50 note? We get to the bottom of what shops are allowed to accept.

Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Sandra Hardial Researcher: Jo Krasner Editor: Sarah Rogers

Transcript

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0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:07.0	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.0	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:14.0	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for
0:21.7	Lucan. It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime. I'm Alex von Tundselman. This is
0:27.8	the Lucan Obsession. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast.
0:39.3	Taxpayers calling HMRC have been kept online for a total of 789 years in just 12 months.
0:46.6	40 million adults expect to have a poorer retirement because of the cost of living crisis
0:51.2	and what can you do with a £50 note if your local cash machine
0:54.8	gives you one, but the local shops won't take it? But first, Moneybox can reveal that the
1:00.3	government is demanding a quarter of a billion pounds back from over 100,000 carers who
1:06.3	say, it says, earned too much and should have lost their carer's allowance.
1:15.9	The numbers come from a parliamentary question this week asked by the chair of the Work and Pension Select Committee,
1:19.9	Sir Stephen Timms, who spoke to Moneybox about this issue just three weeks ago.
1:22.7	Moneybox reporter Dan Whitworth has the latest Dan.
1:26.3	Well, we'll examine those figures in more detail in a moment, Paul.
1:33.3	But what we're actually really talking about here is people like Wren Seawood. She works full-time as well as being a full-time carer for her husband John. He relies on a wheelchair because of severe osteoarthritis, a condition
1:39.3	affecting his spine, his hips, his knees, as well as severe anxiety, which affects John's ability to leave
1:45.0	home. Now, after losing their teenage daughter in a car crash 10 years ago and just being overwhelmed
1:51.1	with correspondence at the time, both John and Wren rarely open post, apart from when they absolutely
1:56.7	have to, so they do admit to missing letters from the Department for Work and Pensions,
	...

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