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The Department of Work and Pensions needs a management and cultural overhaul if it is to restore public trust after the benefits scandal which left hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers in debt, a key government adviser has warned.<\/p>\n
Prof Liz Sayce led a scathing review of <\/a>the carer\u2019s allowance scandal, which found the DWP system and leadership failures were responsible for carers unknowingly running up huge debts, some of which resulted in serious mental illness and, possibly, criminal convictions for fraud.<\/p>\n Sayce told the Guardian she had been surprised by the DWP\u2019s \u201clack of organisational curiosity\u201d about the impact of the problems with carer\u2019s allowance, as well as its reluctance to tackle the issue strategically, despite being aware of the issues for years.<\/p>\n Her comments came days after the Guardian revealed a top DWP civil servant, Neil Couling, had insisted carers were to blame <\/a>for the department\u2019s failures in an internal message to staff, issued a few days after Sayce\u2019s report was published.<\/p>\n Sayce said it had been \u201cdistressing\u201d to read Couling\u2019s comments which she said were \u201cclearly not right\u201d. His view, published in an internal DWP blog, contradicted a key finding of her seven-month review, accepted by ministers, that a confusing and complex system was to blame for the scandal, rather than individual carer error.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really distressed at the idea that the message would go to all the people working in DWP because as I have said a lot of people working in DWP want to do the right thing and probably that wasn\u2019t the message that they\u2019d taken from the review and what ministers had said. So I found it distressing.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayce said her review had revealed a \u201cmixed culture\u201d in the DWP \u2013 staff who wanted to \u201clearn and improve\u201d and others who took a more corporately defensive approach. She added: \u201cIt\u2019s very interesting how organisations behave when they feel they are threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n She said it would be interesting to see \u201cwhich strands of this culture win through\u201d as the DWP prepared to launch in the new year a three-year, \u00a375m plan to review past overpayment cases and improve systems in a bid to prevent carer\u2019s allowance injustices occurring in future.<\/p>\n Last week the welfare secretary, Pat McFadden, rejected Couling\u2019s comment that individual failings by carers were \u201cat the heart\u201d of the issue and effectively confirmed that his comments were \u201cnot the position\u201d of the department.<\/p>\n McFadden said: \u201cThis was a longstanding problem that was ignored by the previous government. We commissioned a report and support that. We are going to fix the issues with payments by carers.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayce also paid tribute to a DWP whistleblower for his determination to ensure the carer\u2019s allowance failures came to light. She said the whistleblower\u2019s evidence had been important to her review. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to raise issues in a big system [like DWP] and he deserves thanks for continuing to raise those issues across time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The government-commissioned Sayce review was ordered after a Guardian investigation<\/a> revealed how unpaid carers had been unfairly hit<\/a> with draconian penalties of as much as \u00a320,000 after unknowingly running up overpayments of carer\u2019s allowance benefit.<\/p>\n Sayce said she was pleased the DWP had accepted most of her review\u2019s 40 recommendations, but said the government\u2019s refusal to follow her advice to change the way carer\u2019s allowance overpayments were recorded was a \u201cmissed opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n She said it was \u201cregrettable\u201d the government had rejected her recommendation to change what she had identified as confusing official guidance on the kinds of allowable expenses carers were allowed to set against weekly earnings limits. The lack of clear guidance meant some carers had unwittingly run up overpayments, she said.<\/p>\n Asked whether unpaid carers may have received a criminal record as a result of DWP system failures, she said: \u201cIt\u2019s possible \u2026 [that where a] case went through to the CPS, people may have pleaded guilty in order to avoid a worse sentence even if they didn\u2019t think they did anything wrong. I don\u2019t know. But those are possibilities that are of concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayce praised ministers for tackling the carer\u2019s allowance issues: \u201cThis is a real step forward. There\u2019s been real commitment from ministers to make this happen. So while there\u2019s further to go, it\u2019s very important to welcome the commitment \u2026 I think this will make some significant changes for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n Ministers have ordered about 200,000 historical cases to be re-assessed, and say about 26,000 carers were likely to have debts cancelled or reduced. \u201cTransparency is the key to building trust [with carers]. So if people are thinking [these figures] might be on the low side, then they [the DWP] need to explain the criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Sayce did not name the whistleblower, it is understood to be Enrico La Rocca, a junior official in the carer\u2019s allowance department whose internal warnings <\/a>were repeatedly ignored or silenced by senior managers for years. His evidence led to an MPs investigation into carer\u2019s allowance in 2019.<\/p>\n Although the DWP permanent secretary, Sir Peter Schofield, assured MPs at the time La Rocca would be protected, he was sacked in 2020<\/a>. He was reinstated in 2021 after MPs intervened. Ministers intervened again this year after La Rocca\u2019s bosses tried to block him<\/a> from giving evidence to the Sayce review.<\/p>\n