Senior DWP civil servant blames victims for carer’s allowance scandal

Neil Couling said failings by individual claimants at the heart' of crisis, despite a report finding DWP shortcomings unacceptable'

One of the most senior civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has placed the blame for the carer's allowance benefits crisis on victims, many of whom have been left with life-changing debts.

In an internal blogpost written for Whitehall colleagues, Neil Couling, the director general of DWP services, said individual failings by carers were at the heart" of the issue that has been likened to the Post Office Horizon scandal.