Analysis of Carer’s Allowance claimants receiving other benefits, undertaking paid work, receiving overpayments and civil penalties
Published 25 November 2025
Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales
© Crown copyright 2025
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/analysis-of-carers-allowance-claimants-receiving-other-benefits-undertaking-paid-work-receiving-overpayments-and-civil-penalties/analysis-of-carers-allowance-claimants-receiving-other-benefits-undertaking-paid-work-receiving-overpayments-and-civil-penalties
1. Introduction
In December 2024, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions commissioned an Independent Review into Carer’s Allowance (CA) overpayments, conducted by Liz Sayce. As part of this review, unpublished data and analysis were commissioned by the Independent Review to inform their evidence base and conclusions.
This publication provides data and analysis in relation to Carer’s Allowance, some of which is referenced by the Independent Review. It is being published alongside the Independent Review to ensure that all figures are presented transparently and impartially, and to provide new evidence and insights in relation to Carer’s Allowance.
2. Characteristics of Carer’s Allowance claimants
Interaction with other benefits
Many people who claim Carer’s Allowance (CA) also claim another benefit. Tables 1 and 2 show the number and proportion of CA claimants (by claim type) claiming other DWP benefits in August 2024[footnote 1]. A CA claimant claiming multiple other benefits will appear in multiple categories, so totals will not sum to the total number or proportion of CA claimants. Figures in this section include CA claimants in England and Wales only, as CA policy is devolved in Scotland. Claimants who receive a payment are ‘In payment’ and claimants who have an entitlement to Carer’s Allowance but do not receive a payment are classed as ‘Entitlement only’. Where claimants are ‘Entitlement only’ this is usually because they also receive another benefit which is paid at an equivalent or higher rate to CA.
Table 1: Number of Carer’s Allowance claimants claiming other benefits, excluding Scotland, August 2024
| Benefit | In payment | Entitlement only | All claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Credit | 532,000 | 39,000 | 571,000 |
| Employment and Support Allowance | 25,000 | 18,000 | 44,000 |
| Housing Benefit | 120,000 | 79,000 | 199,000 |
| Pension Credit | 12,000 | 95,000 | 107,000 |
| Income Support | 33,000 | 1,000 | 34,000 |
| Any Means Tested Benefit[footnote 2] | 659,000 | 168,000 | 828,000 |
| Personal Independence Payment | 144,000 | 47,000 | 190,000 |
| Disability Living Allowance | 4,000 | 16,000 | 20,000 |
| Attendance Allowance | 1,000 | 63,000 | 64,000 |
| Any Disability Benefit[footnote 3] | 148,000 | 126,000 | 274,000 |
| State Pension | 3,000 | 284,000 | 287,000 |
Source: DWP Benefit Combinations dataset merged with DWP administrative data, rounded to the nearest 1000
Table 2: The proportion of all Carer’s Allowance claimants, that claim other benefits, excluding Scotland, August 2024
| Benefit | Proportion of Carer’s Allowance in payment Caseload | Proportion of Entitlement Only Caseload | Proportion of Total Caseload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Credit | 56% | 11% | 43% |
| Employment and Support Allowance | 3% | 5% | 3% |
| Housing Benefit | 13% | 21% | 15% |
| Pension Credit | 1% | 26% | 8% |
| Income Support | 4% | 0% | 3% |
| Any Means Tested benefit | 70% | 45% | 63% |
| Personal Independence Payment | 15% | 13% | 14% |
| Disability Living Allowance | 0% | 4% | 2% |
| Attendance Allowance | 0% | 17% | 5% |
| Any Disability Benefit | 16% | 34% | 21% |
| State Pension | 0% | 77% | 22% |
Source: DWP Benefit Combinations dataset merged with DWP administrative data, rounded to the nearest whole percent
Table 3 shows the proportion of CA claimants in payment who were claiming other DWP benefits in each year from February 2016 to February 2025[footnote 4]. Chart 1 shows the trends in this data over the time period. It shows that there have been gradual increases in the proportion claiming a means tested benefit and the proportion claiming a disability benefit over the last five years. The increase in the proportion claiming a means tested benefit has been driven by the increase in the proportion claiming Universal Credit (UC), while the proportion claiming Income Support (IS) has decreased.
Table 3: The proportion of people receiving a Carer’s Allowance payment who also receive another benefit over time, excluding Scotland, from February 2016 to February 2025.
| Benefit | Feb-2016 | Feb-2017 | Feb-2018 | Feb-2019 | Feb-2020 | Feb-2021 | Feb-2022 | Feb-2023 | Feb-2024 | Feb-2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Credit | 0% | 1% | 3% | 9% | 19% | 29% | 34% | 40% | 46% | 66% |
| Employment and Support Allowance | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 2% |
| Housing Benefit | 48% | 47% | 46% | 42% | 35% | 30% | 26% | 23% | 19% | 5% |
| Pension Credit | 5% | 4% | 4% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 1% |
| Income Support | 34% | 34% | 32% | 28% | 23% | 19% | 16% | 13% | 11% | 0% |
| Any means tested benefit | 61% | 60% | 60% | 60% | 61% | 64% | 65% | 66% | 68% | 71% |
| Personal Independence Payment | 3% | 5% | 7% | 8% | 9% | 10% | 11% | 13% | 14% | 16% |
| Disability Living Allowance | 5% | 4% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Attendance Allowance | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Any disability benefit | 9% | 9% | 9% | 10% | 10% | 11% | 12% | 13% | 15% | 16% |
| State Pension | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Source: DWP Benefit Combinations dataset merged with DWP administrative data, rounded to the nearest whole percent
Chart 1: Trends in the proportion of Carer’s Allowance recipients who also claim other benefits.
Estimates of the proportion of Carer’s Allowance claimants undertaking paid work
People claiming CA can undertake some paid work but must not exceed the earnings limit (£196 per week in 2025 to 2026). Table 4 shows the number of people who both claimed CA in payment and were recorded as either employed or self-employed (or both) at the end of at least one month in between April 2019 and March 2024. Some people may be both employed and self-employed during this period so the separate figures for employment and self-employment will not sum to the total. Some people may appear in multiple years so the total in the final column will not be the sum of the individual year columns.
Table 4: People who were undertaking paid work while claiming Carer’s Allowance in payment by employment status, UK
| Type of employment | 2019 to 2020 | 2020 to 2021 | 2021 to 2022 | 2022 to 2023 | 2023 to 2024 | 2019 to 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employed and / or self-employed | 217,000 | 215,000 | 230,000 | 233,000 | 235,000 | 553,000 |
| Without self-employment | 180,000 | 168,000 | 184,000 | 186,000 | 181,000 | 465,000 |
| Just self-employment | 43,000 | 54,000 | 53,000 | 53,000 | 61,000 | 117,000 |
Source: DWP RAPID dataset, rounded to the nearest 1000
Table 5 shows the estimated proportion of CA claimants who were undertaking paid work between 2019/20 and 2023/24, using the DWP Registrations and Population Interactions Dataset (RAPID) dataset and the Family Resources Survey (FRS).
The estimates using RAPID data are calculated by finding all the times in each year that someone both received a CA payment and were recorded as either employed or self-employed during the same month, and dividing that number by the total number of times in which someone was receiving a CA payment during a month to get an average monthly proportion of CA recipients who are in work.
The estimates using FRS data are calculated by finding all those in the FRS survey who reported claiming CA, and using encrypted NINOs to match on administrative data to identify CA claimants who may not have reported their claim in the FRS survey. Supplementing the FRS survey with the administrative data improves accuracy and sample size because the FRS is known to underreport benefit receipt. Self-reported employment status is then used to calculate the proportion in employment (including self-employment) according to the FRS survey.
The proportion of claimants undertaking paid work from both data sources show relatively similar levels and trends, although there appears a slightly greater decrease in the proportion combining work and CA in the FRS. The estimates from RAPID sit within the 95% confidence intervals generated by the FRS.
Table 5: Carer’s Allowance claimants in payment, estimated proportion undertaking paid work[footnote 5], UK
| Data source | 2019 to 2020 | 2020 to 2021 | 2021 to 2022 | 2022 to 2023 | 2023 to 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAPID estimate | 16% | 16% | 16% | 15% | 15% |
| FRS estimate | 18% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 15% |
| Lower FRS 95% Confidence Interval | 15% | 12% | 14% | 14% | 12% |
| Upper FRS 95% Confidence Interval | 22% | 21% | 20% | 20% | 18% |
Source: DWP RAPID dataset and Family Resource Survey combined with DWP administrative data.
Chart 2: Carer’s Allowance claimants in payment, estimated proportion undertaking paid work, UK
Line chart showing the proportion of Carer’s Allowance recipients in paid work from 2019/20 to 2023/24. Both FRS and RAPID sources decline slightly from around 18% to 15% over time.
3. Carer’s Allowance Overpayments
DWP publishes annual figures on the estimated Monetary Value of Fraud and Error in the benefit system[footnote 6], including the estimated annual value of Carer’s Allowance overpayments. This publication provides additional information and analysis in relation to Carer’s Allowance overpayments from alternative sources of information.
Overpayments for Carer’s Allowance claimants who were undertaking paid work
Table 4 (above) shows the volume of CA claimants who were employed and/or self-employed between April 2019 and March 2024. These claims were matched to onflows to DWP’s debt management system using encrypted national insurance numbers to identify the proportion with an earnings-related overpayment. Data used were snapshots of management information of inflows taken monthly and so will not include revisions where the classification of an overpayment was subsequently changed. The results of this analysis showed that between April 2019 and March 2024, around 20% of CA claimants in payment and in work had one or more earnings related overpayment.
Table 5 (above) shows the proportion of Carer’s Allowance recipients with earnings (15%) in 2023 to 2024. Monetary Value of Fraud and Error statistics show that 1.3% of Carer’s Allowance expenditure was overpaid due to earnings/employment in 2024 to 2025[footnote 7]. As Carer’s Allowance is a flat rate benefit this 1.3% of expenditure can also be assumed to be 1.3% of caseload. Since these overpayments occur only among recipients with earnings, dividing 1.3% by 15%[footnote 8] shows that approximately 8.7% of Carer’s Allowance recipients with earnings are overpaid at any given time.
Verify Earnings and Pensions Service (VEPS)
HM Revenue and Customs provides information to DWP about earnings which, through VEPS, DWP can use to check whether a claimant’s income has risen above the eligibility threshold for certain benefits, including Carer’s Allowance. Table 6 shows the percentage of VEPS alerts that were processed for 2018/19 to 2024/25. The data shown are for Carer’s Allowance only. For operational delivery purposes, DWP groups alerts that relate to the same claimant into cases.
Table 6: Number and proportion of VEPS alerts for Carer’s Allowance received and reviewed by DWP, 2018/19 to 2024/25, GB[footnote 9]
| 2018 to 2019 | 2019 to 2020 | 2020 to 2021 | 2021 to 2022 | 2022 to 2023 | 2023 to 2024 | 2024 to 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VEPS cases received by DWP | 126,000 | 91,000 | 73,000 | 96,000 | 107,000 | 67,000 | 85,000 |
| VEPS cases reviewed by DWP | 11,000 | 35,000 | 38,000 | 46,000 | 50,000 | 35,000 | 65,000 |
| Proportion of VEPS cases reviewed by DWP | 9% | 39% | 52% | 48% | 47% | 52% | 76% |
Source: DWP Management Information
Outstanding debt
In June 2025[footnote 10], just under £166 million was outstanding from just under 93,500 CA debtors due to earnings over the limit which was classed as claimant error. Between 2019 to 2020 and 2024 to 2025, debts valued at just under £300 million were referred to Debt Management for just under 180,000 debtors due to earnings over the limit which was classed as claimant error.
Source: The data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, in this case from our Debt Manager system, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business.
Civil Penalties
When an overpayment decision has been made, a Decision Maker must consider whether a Civil Penalty (£50) should be applied. It can be applied where the claimant has negligently made an incorrect statement or representation, or where they have without reasonable excuse, failed to provide information or notify a relevant change of circumstances.
Table 7 shows the volumes of Civil Penalties imposed for different benefits for each financial year from 2019 to 2020 to 2024 to 2025. The volumes are of new Civil Penalty debts registered not including those reversed or reduced on appeal. Volumes provided are not the volume of individual debtors as it is possible for individuals to have multiple civil penalties applied to different debts.
Table 7: Volumes of Civil Penalties imposed for different benefits. Great Britain Data only.
| Benefit | 2019 to 2020 | 2020 to 2021 | 2021 to 2022 | 2022 to 2023 | 2023 to 2024 | 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance Allowance | 2,601 | 1,298 | 1,809 | 2,434 | 2,827 | 2,467 |
| Carer’s Allowance | 26,469 | 14,486 | 24,021 | 23,876 | 29,998 | 29,266 |
| Disability Living Allowance | 885 | 515 | 681 | 727 | 794 | 617 |
| Employment and Support Allowance | 20,974 | 6,885 | 7,228 | 13,627 | 14,452 | 6,557 |
| Income Support | 12,974 | 4,737 | 3,458 | 2,619 | 2,203 | 618 |
| Jobseeker’s Allowance | 6,556 | 3,274 | 12,411 | 7,065 | 2,268 | 1,324 |
| Pension Credit | 6,589 | 3,222 | 6,710 | 3,204 | 3,333 | 4,953 |
| Personal Independence Payment | 25 | 4 | 406 | 487 | 256 | 178 |
| State Pension | 25 | 22 | 31 | 16 | 7 | - |
| Universal Credit | 81 | 142 | 32,919 | 12,651 | 7,973 | 13,038 |
| Other[footnote 11] | 5,715 | 1,040 | 13,739 | 5,717 | 2,030 | 4,739 |
| Total | 82,894 | 35,625 | 103,413 | 72,423 | 66,141 | 63,757 |
Source: Business Objects Civil Penalty ‘New Debt’ report, identifying CA Debts registered between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2025. The data shown on this report has been run on 7 July 2025 for all years and therefore may differ to previous iterations of the same request.
Estimating the numbers that may have a reassessment of overpayments arising from incorrect earnings averaging guidance.
Table 8: Earnings related Carer’s Allowance overpayment debts excluding successfully prosecuted fraud cases and devolved debts
| Year | Number of Debtors (‘000s)a | Number of Debts (‘000s)a |
|---|---|---|
| 2015c | 2 | 2 |
| 2016 | 3 | 4 |
| 2017 | 4 | 6 |
| 2018 | 11 | 12 |
| 2019 | 29 | 34 |
| 2020 | 17 | 19 |
| 2021 | 27 | 29 |
| 2022 | 27 | 28 |
| 2023 | 29 | 30 |
| 2024 | 29 | 30 |
| 2025d | 19 | 20 |
| Total | 185 [b] | 212 |
Notes: a - A debtor may have more than one debt in scope; b - A debtor may have debts in multiple years so the total number of debtors is less than the sum of the number in each year; c - From 10 April only; d- To 3 September only.
Estimating the numbers that may have an adjustment of overpayments arising from incorrect earnings averaging guidance
A random sample of 999 cases were drawn from the Debt Management records detailed in Table 8 and these cases were reassessed to determine if the corrected Carer’s Allowance averaging rules would result in an adjustment being needed.
Some debt records from the period 2015 to 2018 where the debt had been fully repaid will no longer be available on the Debt Management System due to DWP’s data retention policy. As an approximation of this the volumes of debts and debtors in 2015 to 2018 are doubled from those in Table 8 and applying the estimates from the sample of the cases that needs adjustment implies the number of debtors and debts subject to an adjustment will be.
Table 9 - Estimated eligible debt figures
| Number of Debtors (‘000s) [a] | Number of Debts (‘000s) [a] |
|---|---|
| 26 | 30 |
Source: DWP modelling based on DWP management information
4. Statement of Compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
The Code of Practice for Statistics is built around 3 pillars:
- trustworthiness – is about having confidence in the people and organisations that publish statistics
- quality – is about using data and methods that produce statistics
- value – is about publishing statistics that support society’s needs
Trustworthiness
These figures have been published to provide transparent information on the characteristics of people claiming Carer’s Allowance, and information relating to Carer’s Allowance overpayments that were made available to the Independent Review. They are being released now to ensure equal access to the analysis and provide a greater level of detail to support public awareness and ensure transparency.
Quality
The estimates are based on range of DWP data sources, including survey data, administrative datasets, and management information. The methodology and calculations in this analysis have been quality assured by DWP analysts to ensure they are robust.
Value
Releasing these estimates provides the public and stakeholder organisations with more detailed information on Carer’s Allowance than is available through regular DWP statistical publications. This has not been published in detail before. Making this information accessible helps reduce the requirement of Parliamentary Questions, Freedom of Information requests and ad hoc queries.
-
August 2024 was the data used by the Independent Review ↩
-
This includes everyone who is on UC, HB, PC, IS, JSA and income-based ESA. For the purpose of this calculation all JSA claimants, not just those on income-based JSA, are counted as being on a means-tested benefit. People who are not on income-based ESA are not counted. The Benefit Combinations Dataset does not include Tax Credits or Council Tax Support. ↩
-
This encompasses claimants on AA, DLA or PIP. ↩
-
February 2025 is the latest available data at the time of report production ↩
-
Estimates of the proportion in employment are based on different data sources and definitions to the official ONS employment rates under the ILO framework ↩
-
Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2025 - GOV.UK ↩
-
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2024 to 2025 estimates - GOV.UK ↩
-
Assuming 2024 to 2025 employment rate remained at 2023 to 2024 level of 15% ↩
-
Numbers are rounded to the nearest 1,000, figures might not sum due to rounding. The above data has been sourced from internal DWP management information, which is intended only to help the Department to manage its business. Figures exclude data for October, November, and December 2023. The VEP service continued to flag CA claims in need of investigation throughout this period and operational staff continued to investigate these referrals as business-as-usual. However, during this period the activity was not comprehensively recorded on DWP management information systems and so is not available. Due to this the figures presented here represent an underestimate on all categories for 2023 to 2024. ↩
-
June 2024 was the data used by the Independent Review ↩
-
Other benefits include: Cost of Living Payments (including Disability), Housing Benefit (Post-1988 cases), Maternity Allowance, Social Fund (Budgeting and Crisis Loans), Retirement Pension (Contributory), Severe Disablement Allowance, Cold Weather and Christmas Bonuses, Tax Credit Overpayments, Winter Fuel Payments, Widows’ and Bereavement-related Allowances ↩