Unpaid carers ordered to repay benefits despite DWP knowing rules were unlawful

Officials sent out repayment letters to about 1,400 people relying on discredited guidance that had been scrapped

Unpaid carers have been issued with demands to repay thousands of pounds for allegedly breaking benefit rules even though officials knew the decisions were based on unlawful and discredited policy guidance.

About 1,400 carers are understood to have been sent letters by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in January asking them to repay sums relating to breaches of carer's allowance earnings rules that had been scrapped four months previously.