'It's like the Post Office scandal' Victims of the system speak out about what happened to them

Vivienne Groom, 61, 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 being the sole carer for her dying mother with doing a minimum wage supermarket job.

- Josh Halliday

Groom, a quiet woman who does not even have a parking ticket to her name, was horrified to find out about the infraction. She was prosecuted under legislation usually reserved for major drug dealers and told by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) she could be sent to prison.

"I was absolutely petrified," she said, adding that she would have killed herself had she been jailed.

"I was in such a mess. I wouldn't have coped. I was suicidal. I would've done myself in." One judge saw that Groom was evidently not the typical benefits cheat, telling her: "You were living an ordinary lifestyle, just doing your best." Another also showed compassion but, without legal representation and desperate to get the ordeal over, Groom pleaded guilty.

She was not given a prison sentence, but was ordered to pay the government the entire £16,000 inheritance left by her mother, Maud, when she died at 91.

The shocking treatment of Groom was the first to be revealed by the Guardian as part of a carer's allowance investigation that began in early 2024. Hundreds more carers have been prosecuted in a similar way, while hundreds of thousands of people have been ordered to repay about £350m to the government since 2019.