Ministers have announced a major review of the penalties imposed on hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers after a damning independent investigation of the carer’s allowance scandal.

The inquiry by Liz Sayce was launched after the Guardian revealed how a catalogue of failures at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had left scores of vulnerable families with huge debts and hundreds with criminal convictions for fraud.

Those who care for loved ones for at least 35 hours a week are entitled to £83.30 a week in carer’s allowance, as long as their weekly earnings do not exceed £196. But if they exceed this limit, even by as little as 1p, they must repay that entire week’s carer’s allowance.

The draconian nature of the rules is compounded by the DWP’s failure to alert unpaid carers whe

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