The UK’s first disability ambassador, and a veteran of the protection industry, Johnny Timpson has quit his role as a government advisor on dementia in protest at the DWP’s treatment of unpaid carers.
Timpson, who worked for Scottish Widows for over 20 years, says he wanted to “take a stand” after reports that tens of thousands carers were being fined significant sums, and in some cases prosecuted, after breaching complex earnings rules around the carer’s allowance.
This issue, which was first reported by the Guardian, found that in many cases these were minor breaches, but with these small overpayments being made for many years, carers were now being hit with fines and repayments running into thousands of pounds.
Timpson said an overly complex benefits system that relied on people realising they had been overpaid was at the root of the problem.
He criticised the DWP and other government agencies for not identifying carers as a vulnerable group and working to ensure that the correct benefits were paid to them.
He says: “When you’re dealing with someone in your household who’s got dementia… that’s a big heavy caring ask, so that carer has a lot going on in their life. The last thing that they’re probably able to get their head around is the complexity of their benefit entitlement.”
He added that other regulated companies – like those operating in the financial services sector – have a duty to identify vulnerable customers and intervene, where necessary to prevent harm, to and ensure “a drama does not become a crisis”.
He also said this highlighted the issues around “financial health” which itself was taking a toll on the physical and mental wellbeing of the nation.
Timpson says he was “quite disenchanted” with the current government’s approach towards people with disabilities for some time, but things had now come to a head with this latest issue.
In an interview with the Guardian he added : “The fact [is] that we have made absolutely no progress at all on social care [and] we really did not support carers adequately during the pandemic.
“But the approach the DWP are taking to reclaim benefits from carers and people with disabilities, particularly those with neurological disabilities, is beyond the pale for me really.”
Timpson, who was awarded an OBE in 2022, sat on the Prime Minister’s dementia friendly communities champion group. He was previously a Cabinet Office disability ambassador.
Timpson worked at Scottish Widows from 1987 to 2014. He has held senior roles at many UK financial organisations, and campaign groups that focused on improving mental health and financial resilience. These include roles at the Association of British Insurers, the Income Protection Task Force Welfare Working Group, and the Chartered Insurance Institute among others.