“On the surface it sounds really positive – and I really hope that it is,” says unpaid carer Guy Shahar of the government’s decision to abolish the notorious carer’s allowance cliff edge .

But Shahar is angry that most carers hit with unjust overpayments in the past will still have to repay them, for all the promise of a different future. And he notes that the cliff edge remains in place for four more years, potentially catching out more carers.

“They are effectively saying: ‘We know that the system was unfair but we will still punish you for having been the victim of an unfair system,’” he says.

The chancellor is expected to announce the introduction of a new digital taper system into the carer’s allowance benefit in the budget, in effect ending a rule that has landed hundreds of thousands of carers with life-shattering financial penalties.

Unpaid carers have broadly welcomed the move – and there is a general acknowledgment that ministers are moving positively, if slowly, to reform a system with inbuilt…