PM urged to write off fines for unpaid carers

New figures show more than 150,000 unpaid carers are facing huge fines for minor rule breaches, as MPs, charities and campaigners called on Rishi Sunak to grant an immediate amnesty.

- Patrick Butler , Josh Halliday , Aletha Adu

The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, joined calls to write off the vast debts incurred by tens of thousands of people who care for sick, disabled and elderly relatives after experts raised concerns about the legality of the government's approach.

The Guardian can reveal more than 156,000 unpaid carers are repaying severe penalties in some cases tens of thousands of pounds - for often unwittingly overstepping the £151-a-week earnings limit while caring for a loved one.

Davey's call for carer overpayment debts to be waived came as latest figures show 11,600 carers hit by the penalties are paying back sums over £5,000. About one in five unpaid carers in work breached the strict weekly earnings limit last year - an illustration, campaigners say, of a broken system.

His intervention comes amid growing political pressure on the government over a scandal that has generated widespread outrage at the draconian treatment of unpaid carers, a group praised by ministers as heroes whose sacrifices help prop up the NHS and social care system.

The Guardian has in recent weeks documented the despair and stress experienced by carers forced to pay huge fines - and sometimes prosecuted on fraud charges - after unwitting breaches of earnings limits, that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) allowed to mount up for months and sometimes years.