At least £357m in carer’s allowance paid out in error over past six years, charity finds

Exclusive: amount due to official failures, resulting in carers running up huge overpayments over months and years

At least 357m in carer's allowance benefit was paid out in error over the past six years due to official failures, resulting in debt and misery being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people.

The bulk of the figure relates to minor breaches of earnings rules by carers which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was alerted to but did not check, allowing carers to run up huge overpayments over months and years.