Patrick Butler
Patrick Butler is social policy editor at The Guardian, where he’s worked for 25 years. He reports on poverty, social security, local government, the voluntary sector and social care. With his colleague Josh Halliday, he received the 2025 Paul Foot Award for investigative and campaigning journalism for their reporting on the Carer’s Allowance Scandal.
Summer Conference Event
— Talk
Paul Foot Award 2025: Carer’s Allowance Scandal
It didn't start as an "investigation" but within months a story that began with a relatively straightforward report about tens of thousands of unpaid carers being unfairly forced to repay thousands of pounds in benefits and prosecuted for fraud had snowballed: the injustices exposed by the ongoing reports scandalised the public, led to a government-commissioned independent review, and won the journalists behind the story the prestigious Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism.
Social Policy Editor at The Guardian