A man who is a carer for his 37-year-old son is being forced to sell his home or face jail because he wrongly received benefits that cost the taxpayer less than £110.
George Henderson, 59, has cared all his life without payment for his son who has mental health problems and is addicted to heroin.
In August 2010, a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) official visited to ensure his son was getting the right benefits.
George then asked whether he could claim carer’s allowance.
Subsequently, the Department for Work and Pensions failed to notice that George was paying tax on his earnings and had received £19,500 carer’s allowance for more than six years.
However, he was prosecuted for fraud over a mistake that cost just 30p a week. George, who pleaded not guilty, said,
“As far as I was concerned, I never done anything wrong. I don’t owe the DWP a penny. They took it off my son, gave it to me, who gave it back to my son as caring for him.
“So the money that came off my son is the same amount of money as the DWP are actually trying to take back off me.”
At his trial at Preston Crown Court, George was found guilty of fraud and was fined, given a 32-week suspended sentence and electronically tagged.
Last month, the DWP used the Proceeds of Crime Act to force George to sell his home and pay back all £20,900 of overpaid carer’s allowance plus fines.
