The UK permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions, Sir Peter Schofield’s has revealed plans to resign in July due to personal reasons.
This follows his department’s response to a prolonged benefits failure that resulted in thousands falling into debt, widely known as the carers’ allowance scandal.
Thousands of unpaid carers were left with substantial debts — and in some cases fraud convictions — after failures in the DWP’s management of carers’ allowance overpayments, according to a Guardian investigation.
The DWP noted the departure of Schofield was not related to the crisis rocking the department’s leadership.
In a staff email, Schofield said: “There is never a good moment to step away from a job like this, but having passed my eight-year anniversary, now feels like a good time to pause and reflect on what I want to do next while spending more time with my family.”
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Schofield has spent 35 years in the civil service and has served as permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions since 2018. In 2019, he told MPs he would address problems with the carer’s allowance system.
However, an independent review later found that issues persisted, with large numbers of carers continuing to get debts linked to benefit overpayments.
In an internal email, Schofield did not refer to carer’s allowance but stated what he described as the department’s expansion of universal credit during his tenure, as well as its response to increased demand for welfare support during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A government-commissioned independent review published in November failures in the carer’s allowance system to systemic leadership issues within the DWP, alongside problems in benefit design and unlawful administrative guidance.
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