Carer told to repay nearly £9,000 of benefits

Richard Munson, 60, says his finances are now on a "downward spiral"

A football steward who looks after his disabled wife has spoken of his frustration with the benefits system after he was told he must repay nearly £9,000 he was not entitled to.

Richard Munson of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, received weekly Carer’s Allowance payments from the end of 2020 to the middle of 2023 after giving up his full-time job to care for his wife, Wendy.

Last September, the 60-year-old was told by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) he was no longer entitled to the benefit and owed £6,801, because he hadn't told them about his new part-time job - which he disputed.

But after querying the allegation and asking officers to recalculate the amount, the department then realised Mr Munson actually owed even more - a total £8,523.

Mr Munson was initially told he owed the Department for Work and Pensions £6,801 but after he asked for the figure to be recalculated, he was told he actually owed much more

Mr Munson, who now works at Ipswich Town’s Portman Road ground on match days and as a school minibus driver, said he always kept the department up-to-date and never tried to mislead them.

He claimed he also made a point of informing the department, given the unpredictable nature of his jobs, that he might work more or less in any given month.

Mr Munson said he was told not to worry and it would “sort itself out over the year”, only to then be informed he had received too many carer’s allowance payments.

He said: “They overpaid me, I can accept that, but what really gripes me is they took three years to realise they were paying me something I was not entitled to.

"They also gave me a £50 penalty for 'falsely claiming', which I didn't, not knowingly anyway."

“There’s an attitude in this country that if you’re on benefits you are a scrounger but there’s a hell of a lot of people who need those benefits and are genuine.

"The benefits system is a minefield and heavily stacked in favour of putting people off claiming.”

Mr Munson works part-time but also cares for his wife, Wendy, who is 59 and has disabilities

Mr Munson must now pay back more than £8,500 of Carer's Allowance after receiving payments he was not entitled to

After unsuccessfully lodging an appeal against the DWP, Mr Munson settled for a £30-per-month repayment plan, having decided against the “gamble” of going to court.

He added the loss of the weekly benefit of roughly £70 had hit him and his 59-year-old wife hard and balancing the books had become “even more of a struggle”.

He said: “Losing the Carer’s Allowance was bad enough but having to pay back the best part of £9,000… I’m now worse off than I was before I cashed in my pension.

“If they had notified me earlier this all could have been sorted without a problem – but now I’m going overdrawn every month and it's just on a downward spiral.

“Yes, I’ve had a pay rise this year but that is just wiped out overnight because everything is going up - I hardly ever go for a beer anymore because I can’t afford to.”

Mr Munson will have to pay back £30 per month for about the next 25 years to fully clear his debt.

The DWP has been contacted for comment.