In 2010, George Henderson wrongly ticked a field saying he was unemployed whereas filling within the “difficult” software kind for carer’s allowance. He had thought the Division for Work and Pensions was asking about his son John, who has studying difficulties and is hooked on heroin.
Ticking that field has modified Henderson’s life. He stated he was dragged by way of the courts, convicted of fraud and needed to promote his residence to pay again virtually £20,000 in profit overpayments after the DWP determined to prosecute him. The division lately acknowledged that Henderson had made an harmless mistake.
Henderson isn’t alone. The Guardian society editor, Patrick Butler, tells Helen Pidd that he has been investigating why so many carers are being taken to court docket for profit fraud. He explores what could possibly be finished to deal with a narrative that’s drawing parallels with the Submit Workplace Horizon IT scandal.
{Photograph}: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
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