NAO report on CA overpayments and the need to address official error, not pass on costs to claimants

This came up last December and I didn’t pay sufficient attention to it:
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/nao-announces-it-is-to-investigate-overpayments-of-carers-allowance

Now there’s this in today’s Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/26/dwp-staff-problems-leave-carers-with-years-of-overpaid-benefit-debt

‘Frank Field MP, chair of the work and pensions committee, said the report “devastatingly laid bare the incompetence at DWP, and its stark human cost”.’

DWP’s response boasts of improvements, of introducing new technology, speaks of its duty to the taxpayer and of claimants’ responsibilities.

Not a word about its own responsibility to stop making a mess of things.

To my mind, this links most uncomfortably with the situation regarding UC overpayments, where there is not even the protection of appealing recoverability on the grounds of official error. And we are seeing a great deal of official error.

Rather than address problems with official error, the government has of course written the UC rules so that it doesn’t matter who is at fault. Very like Tax Credits, but with no Code of Practice.

‘Field said: “There was already plenty wrong with the way we recognise carers’ invaluable contribution. Rather than making things worse, why doesn’t the department just spare us all: end this massive scandal, focus on the real fraudsters and write off the overpayments it has allowed to build up unchecked.”’

DWP needs to address its failures, and not just in the case of carers. Until and unless there is a strong incentive in the system to prevent and penalise official error, things can only get worse.