Thousands of unpaid carers to face DWP repayment demands during overhaul

Thousands of unpaid carers will continue to be hit with hefty and potentially unfair benefit repayment demands, it has emerged, as a government initiative gets under way to fix welfare injustices that have drawn comparison to the Post Office scandal.Ministers will on Monday launch an audit of more than 200,000 historical carer’s allowance benefit cases, with an estimated 25,000 carers issued with unlawful overpayments since 2015 likely to see their repayment debts cancelled or reduced as a result.The so-called reassessment exercise marks a big step in the government’s attempt to “put right” systemic injustices that led to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable carers having debts of up to £20,000 through no fault of their own.However, the government has admitted its existing “business as usual” overpayment recovery policies will be maintained while a full overhaul of the benefit is completed, in effect ensuring that carer’s allowance penalties will continue to be imposed.Furthermore, it is still unclear how ministers will compensate thousands more carers who were unlawfully issued with overpayment demands because of longstanding system faults linking universal credit and carer’s allowance, or who were wrongly told to repay money after officials lost evidence that they had reported changes in earnings

Online abuse is a daily reality for women in public life | Letters

Reading Stella Creasy’s piece about the online abuse she received after sharing an image of herself enjoying a silent disco in her constituency filled me with a mix of anger and weary understanding (When I get abused just for dancing, it shows how far hatred of politicians has gone, 7 April).My own research in this area, which now spans almost a decade, has consistently shown that women working across the public sphere are targeted with misogynistic online abuse, and that what happens in digital spaces echoes other forms of gender‑based violence.My work also demonstrates that the online abuse directed at women in high‑profile, public‑facing occupations typically comprises seven elements: defamation, emotional harm, harassment, threat, belittlement, silencing and criticism of appearance. At least one of these elements appears in every abusive encounter.The detail of the abuse Creasy shared reinforces this pattern

French children’s menus were a surprising disappointment – with one exception | Letter

Ellie Violet Bramley’s efforts to find the perfect kids menu resonated deeply with me as a mum just back from a trip to France, where every child’s option was nuggets, burger or fish with chips (‘Before I can stop her, my daughter is licking crumbs from the table’: my search for the perfect kids’ menu, 7 April).Perhaps naively, I’d imagined a better offering from our French counterparts, but staying in a popular ski resort at Easter, I concluded that maybe they knew who they were catering for.However, I did get a very pleasant surprise at the end of the trip when travelling home with Brittany Ferries, who not only have a child’s menu, but also say explicitly that all of their main dishes can be made in smaller portions for children. Child one opted for pork in a cider sauce, while child two plumped for bavette steak, and both plates were cleared!Of all the places I might have expected to find a shining beacon of paediatric gastronomy, a cross-channel ferry wasn’t among them. I’m hoping it is the start of a sea change for children’s dining

This ‘old lady hand’ is giving ageism the finger | Brief letters

I can’t believe that in 2026 an article assumes that women need to hide their age (From fat transplants to LED mittens: how the fear of ‘old lady hands’ mobilised the beauty industry, 9 April). I’m an old lady; I have old lady hands. I didn’t know it was an insult.Ruth ValentineLondon OK, so the demise of Rose’s Lime Marmalade is a blow (Rose’s Lime Marmalade? Gone. Dark chocolate Bounty? No more

Four in 10 UK parents struggle to afford essentials for newborns, study says

Four in 10 parents across the UK are struggling to afford essential items for the care of their newborn babies, according to research.The survey of 2,000 parents with children aged under five by the charity Barnardo’s found that almost half (49%) felt their child had missed out on opportunities to learn or play because of the cost of living.Meanwhile, 44% said financial pressures had affected their child’s development, including speech, socialising and physical play. More than half (54%) said they wished they had been able to provide more essential items for their newborn.In Scotland, all parents are eligible for a box of baby essentials that includes clothes, books, a changing mat and a bath towel

Alarm in health service over Palantir staff being given NHS email accounts

Health service staff have expressed alarm that engineers working for controversial tech company Palantir have been given NHS email accounts.Employees using NHS.net email accounts have access to a directory with the contact details of up 1.5 million staff. Sources believe Palantir staff were granted the same access