It was three weeks after Christmas when the bombshell letter arrived. Guy Shahar and his wife, Oksana, looked at each other in stunned disbelief.
They had followed the Guardian’s investigation into the carer’s allowance scandal that has left thousands of families with crippling debts and criminal records. Not once did they think they would join them.
“Important,” it read in big bold type. “You have been paid more carer’s allowance than you are entitled to. You now need to pay this money back”.
In some weeks, she was paid just 38p more than the threshold – but for that tiny infraction she is being forced to repay £64.60 each time, the rate of carer’s allowance at the time.
this is your government doing this??
The Australian government tried something similar, an automated, probably black mirror inspired orphan crushing machine called Robodebt announced to millions of Australians that they had to repay their welfare payments. There was no human arbiter in the loop to whom one could appeal. After a bunch of suicides and legal challenges, it was eventually scrapped after federal courts ruled it illegal and the government returned $1.2b of stolen money.
This was a rightwing conservative government initiative.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robodebt_scheme#%3A~%3Atext=The+Robodebt+scheme+was+an%2Cpart+of+its+Centrelink+payment