Woman, 22, ‘overwhelmed’ after £2,145 fine from DWP paid off on her behalf – 1v1 Video Chat & LIve Streaming & Influencer Subscription

By Christian Abbott

A young carer has been left ” amazed” as national newspaper readers paid off her £2,000 fine from the Department fot Work and Pensions (DWP) benefit rules mistake. Rose Jones was told to repay £2,145 after she unwittingly breached ‘draconian’ carer’s allowance regulations. And now Rose has been left emotional after Guardian readers paid off her debt. The 22-year-old received a demand from the same government department that she pay back £2,145 of overpaid benefits. Emily Holzhausen, the director of policy at Carers UK, said it was “devastating” to see a young person with a “challenging start in life be badly let down by the DWP ”. READ MORE Next UK heatwave set to be ‘even hotter than expected’ and will start within days Jones, who cared for her mother from the age of eight until she was 20, said: “I’m both overwhelmed by how much support it’s had and really amazed that people feel that I was treated badly by the DWP because for so long I did feel like I was on my own in this situation. “People have given so many kind comments. I feel very supported. It was like a weight on my chest for so long. I’ve been dealing with this for almost three years now.” She added: “It was particularly stressful when I first got the letter from the DWP. I was really worried that I would have to pay it all off and I wouldn’t be able to pay for my rent. I was also worried that my mum would get in trouble because she was the one I was caring for.” It comes as Downing Street’s U-turn on changes to welfare last week will make it harder to implement other policies such as potentially scrapping the two-child benefit cap, Bridget Phillipson has said. “The decisions that have been taken in the last week do make future decisions harder,” the Labour Party MP told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. “But all of that said, we will look at this collectively in terms of all of the ways that we can lift children out of poverty.” She added: “The mission that we’re driving across government is about making sure that background doesn’t determine success, because for far too many children in our country, the family that they’re born into, the town that they’re born into, will absolutely determine their life chances.”