All posts tagged: Allowance

Royal news live: King Charles ‘axes’ Prince Andrew’s £1m allowance due to Royal Lodge row

Royal news live: King Charles ‘axes’ Prince Andrew’s £1m allowance due to Royal Lodge row

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Prince William confronted by founder of The Big Issue in awkward interaction Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email The King will cut financial ties to the disgraced Duke of York after he refused to move out of his home, a royal writer has claimed. Prince Andrew’s £1 million “living allowance”, received every year, has been withdrawn by Charles as he continues to seek to distance himself from his younger brother. This is according to royal writer Robert Hardman, in the serialisation of a new book published by the Daily Mail. The keeper of the privy purse was “instructed to sever [Andrew’s] living allowance”. It comes after Andrew reportedly refused to move out of the 30-room Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor Great Park into the smaller Frogmore Cottage – previously inhabited by Harry and Meghan. “’The duke is no longer a financial burden on the King,’ confirms one familiar with the situation,” Mr Hardman writes. “’He claims to have found …

Lib Dems to promise £1.5bn reform of carer’s allowance including debt amnesty | Carers

Lib Dems to promise £1.5bn reform of carer’s allowance including debt amnesty | Carers

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The Liberal Democrats will commit to a £1.5bn overhaul of carer’s allowance, including a £20-a-week boost for more than 1 million people who devote their lives to looking after frail, ill and disabled loved ones, in their general election manifesto. An ongoing Guardian investigation has revealed that tens of thousands of unpaid carers have been forced by the government to pay back huge sums – and in some cases have faced criminal prosecution – for minor and accidental breaches of carer’s allowance earnings rules. Proposed reforms to be unveiled on Monday by the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, will include a write-off of £250m of carer’s allowance overpayment debts run up by more than 100,000 carers, and measures to help carers earn more through part-time paid work. Davey, who is a carer himself, said the proposals were designed to give family carers a fair deal and put a stop to what he called the “shameful hounding” of unpaid carers by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Guardian’s revelations about the scale and human …

Princess Catharina-Amalia to receive government money after refusing million dollar allowance

Princess Catharina-Amalia to receive government money after refusing $2 million dollar allowance

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Princess Catharina-Amalia revealed on Tuesday that she will now be accepting government reimbursement for her expenses as the heir to the throne. According to the Netherlands Times, the future Queen has been entitled to claim up to 1,509,000 euros for expenses and 322,000 euros in salary since 2021 when she turned 18 in December of that year. © GettyThe princess will begin accepting money from the government However, before coming of age, she revealed she would not be accepting the payments unless the costs relating to her role increased.  Earlier this week, the princess sent a handwritten letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte explaining her change of heart.  © Patrick van KatwijkThe 20-year-old is the heir to the Dutch throne It read: “With the passage of time and after surprising circumstances, it is now foreseeable that I will have to take into account personnel and material expenses with a view to an independent and autonomous fulfillment of my position, including administrative staff, and reservations for a living and working accommodation.”  The publication also reported that …

Work and pensions committee chair tells ministers to fix carer’s allowance issues | Carers

Work and pensions committee chair tells ministers to fix carer’s allowance issues | Carers

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Ministers have been told to “immediately” fix the issues causing tens of thousands of unpaid carers to incur “enormous accidental overpayments” amid growing anger over the carer’s allowance scandal. Stephen Timms, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee, said he was “very troubled” that scores of carers were being forced into financial distress as a result of the government’s mistakes. He said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should be “helping them not harassing them” and added: “It does sound to me as though things are going quite badly wrong at the moment.” Timms, the chair of the Commons work and pensions committee and the Labour MP for East Ham, told BBC Radio 4’s Money Box programme that the DWP seemed to “completely ignore” the notifications it received when an unpaid carer earned more than the £151-a-week limit. Instead, he said, the department was allowing people to incur “enormous accidental overpayments”, often over several years. In dozens of cases these bills have totalled more than £20,000. The Guardian revealed this week that 156,000 unpaid …

Hailed as a hero and then sacked: the carer’s allowance whistleblower | Benefits

Hailed as a hero and then sacked: the carer’s allowance whistleblower | Benefits

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Almost exactly five years ago, Enrico La Rocca was hailed by MPs as a hero, a whistleblower whose tenacity had helped expose profound failures at the heart of the government’s vast benefits agency, resulting in tens of thousands of vulnerable unpaid carers being unfairly fined and prosecuted. Without La Rocca – who was not named at the time – serious problems with carer’s allowance overpayments may never have come to light, the Commons work and pensions select committee concluded: without him the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would never have been persuaded of the “urgent need to act”. Yet less than a year later the DWP sacked him, the Guardian can reveal – just months after its permanent secretary, Peter Schofield, had assured MPs that La Rocca – an experienced civil servant in the carer’s allowance unit – would be “absolutely” protected for speaking out. The DWP’s extraordinary treatment of the carer’s allowance whistleblower emerges as ministers face growing scrutiny over their continuing failure to fix those same administrative failings – and growing outrage …

MPs call for carer’s allowance review as numbers overpaid soars | Benefits

MPs call for carer’s allowance review as numbers overpaid soars | Benefits

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MPs have called for a full-scale review of carer’s allowance and an end to harsh benefit rules that have resulted in tens of thousands of unpaid carers being fined huge sums and in some cases prosecuted for minor infringements of earnings limits. The calls came as new official figures showed that the number of unpaid carers incurring fines after inadvertently falling foul of earnings rules soared to more than 34,000 last year, with more than 1,000 individuals hit with sums of between £5,000 and £20,000. Campaigners said this meant one in five carer’s allowance claimants who worked part-time on top of their caring duties were overpaid in 2023-24, landing many with huge debts they would spend years paying off. The figures, slipped out last Friday afternoon by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), suggest ministers have failed to get a grip on overpayments despite promising five years ago to tackle the issue. MPs repeatedly brought up the issue of overpayments at a Westminster Hall debate on Monday evening, reflecting growing concerns – from parliament …

‘Injustice’: 92-year-old with dementia told by DWP to repay £7k in disability allowance | Benefits

‘Injustice’: 92-year-old with dementia told by DWP to repay £7k in disability allowance | Benefits

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Rose Chitseko’s mother, who is 93 in April, was always meticulous about her money. As a child during the second world war, she learned to hold on to the pennies in her pocket. It was a trait she later held dear as a single mother with bills to pay. “She was the strong, proud woman who had looked after herself and me all her life and managed her finances,” said Chitseko, 62. “It was a matter of pride that she kept on top of everything.” Yet despite this lifelong commitment, Chitseko’s mother, who has advanced Parkinson’s and dementia, finds herself at the sharp end of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) “outrageous” welfare rules. The DWP is forcing the grandmother of four to pay back more than £7,000 – more than a third of her life savings – after she failed to notify it about a change in her circumstances five years ago when she was in the early stages of dementia and 88 years old. The penalty stems from early 2019, when Chitseko …

Committee Chair Tells DWP To “Get A Grip” On Carer’s Allowance Overpayments

Committee Chair Tells DWP To “Get A Grip” On Carer’s Allowance Overpayments

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Chair of the work and pensions committee Stephen Timms has said the government must “get a grip” on carer’s allowances overpayments. (Alamy) 3 min read15 April Labour MP Stephen Timms, chair of the work and pensions select committee, has insisted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) must “get a grip” on carer’s allowance overpayments. Carers have been pursued by the DWP for repayments on overpaid carers allowance after unknowingly earning more than the threshold for the £81.90-a-week benefit, according to campaigners for carers. Figures from 2022/23 showed tens of thousands of people have been pursued for repayments, with 36 people pursued for sums greater than £20,000. Last week The Observer reported carers who have received over payments have also been threatened with criminal prosecution.  Timms told PoliticsHome he was “concerned” about the current situation and said it was an issue the DWP had been made aware of in the past.  “At the time they did receive quite a few reassurances that this would not carry on happening, but it clearly is carrying on happening,” he said.  …