DWP official blames victims for carer's allowance scandal

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

- Patrick Butler Social policy editor

Inaninternal 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.

The post, which was removed after the Guardian made inquiries about its content, has been met withan outcry from charities and politicians.

An independent review into the scandal last month found that longstanding and “unacceptable” systemic DWP leadership problems and poor benefit design were at the root of the failure, which it said could not be blamed on carers.

Some carers who fell foul of the benefit’s outdated and complextules felt so shamed, distressed and desperate they contemplated suicide, the review found. It described being caught in the system as like being “at the whim of a faceless machine”.

‘Thereview, by the disability rights expert Liz Sayce, concluded that senior DWP leaders had for a decade failed to fix problems with the benefit, despite repeated warnings by whistleblowers, auditors and MPs.