Sunak under pressure to grant amnesty to unpaid carers fined for rule breaches

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, 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.

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 routinely 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, which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has allowed to mount up for months and sometimes years.

Nigel Mills, a Conservative MP on the Commons work and pensions committee, described the government’s hounding of unpaid carers as “unnecessarily cruel” and urged ministers to drop prosecutions for all but the handful of deliberate fraudsters.

The DWP five years ago promised technology to stop overpayments mounting but has failed to grip the problem, leaving carers, most of whom are already in financial hardship, facing bills of thousands of pounds when they are finally identified.

Meanwhile, the Guardian can reveal a DWP whistleblower who first brought carer’s allowance injustices to public attention five years ago was sacked just months after MPs on the Commons work and pensions select committee had paid tribute to his bravery and tenacity.