‘It’s like the Post Office scandal’: victims of carer’s allowance crisis speak out

Claimants forced to pay back thousands of pounds tell of horrendous' court ordeals and of desire for official apology

• DWP to reassess hundreds of thousands of cases in carer's allowance scandal

• The carer's allowance scandal - a timeline

Vivienne Groom had never been inside the dock of a criminal court when she stood, sobbing and shaking, before a judge last year.

She was accused by the government of unlawfully claiming nearly 17,000 in carer's allowance while she juggled a minimum wage supermarket job with being the sole carer for her dying mother.