Benefits for carers are ‘unnecessarily complex and cause confusion', the Public Accounts Committee has found. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) pays around £2bn a year to an estimated six million carers. But the value of the work carried out by these carers has been estimated at £23bn. Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: ‘The value of the service these unpaid carers provide is not reflected in the quality of the DWP's arrangements for providing them with financial support.' A spokeswoman for the Local Government Association said: ‘Take up of benefits is something local authorities are working hard to promote in these tough economic times.'
