Systembeschäftigte kündigen wegen Pflegegeld

>Those who unwittingly breached the £151 a week earnings limits – in some cases by less than £1 – said the disproportionate penalties levied on them for doing so landed them with huge debts, plunging them and the people they care for into hardship, and inflicting a savage toll on their mental health.

>The so-called “cliff-edge” earnings rules mean a carer who oversteps the limit must repay the whole £81.90 weekly allowance. A carer who earned £1 more than the £151 threshold for 52 weeks, therefore, would pay back not £52 but £4,258.80. Some are prosecuted for fraud.

>A Guardian investigation earlier this year revealed the scale of the carer’s allowance injustices, including the last government’s failure to address failings it had known about for years. Latest figures show 134,500 unpaid carers were repaying £251m in earnings-related overpayments, with 11,500 carers repaying sums above £5,000.

The lack of joined up thinking In this country is staggering. During a period in which there is a labour shortage and a critical crisis in social care the Government designs a system that vindictively punishes both.