Campaign
Fixing the Foundations
Of pay in homecare
For years, homecare workers have been exposed to a high risk of National Minimum Wage underpayment thanks to the non-payment of legal working time and low mileage rates.
To ensure homecare workers are paid the rate stated on their contract of employment and not a penny less, the foundations of pay in homecare must be fixed ahead of the promised Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care.
People deserve to feel confident that the care workers entering people's homes are shown dignity in their wages in return for compassionate, committed, relational support.
Unpaid working time
In 2025, 72% of over 500 domiciliary care workers we asked said they were only paid for the time they spend at care visits. Yet some or all of the travel and waiting time between scheduled care visits counts as payable working time. This means that our true hourly rate of pay once all working time is considered is often lower than the rate stated on ours contracts of employment.
Based on fifty calculations we performed using our One Run Checker in the 25-26 financial year, the average contracted rate of pay was £13.14 yet the average true hourly rate of pay was just £9.77. That's well below the National Minimum Wage.
Compliant employers top-up wages when they run payroll so that each worker’s pay meets the National Minimum Wage. Non-compliant employers illegally underpay the National Minimum Wage. Across the board, contracted hourly rates are misleadingly high.
Unpaid working time obscures the realities of low pay in homecare
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Masking illegal underpayment of the National Minimum Wage
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Locking Health & Care Worker Visa holders into exploitative working hours as they strive to meet the Home Office's minimum salary requirement
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Misleading policy-makers and job seekers
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Undermining efforts to improve care workers' basic hourly rate of pay
Members of Homecare Voices call for:
Shift-based pay
Homecare workers should be paid from the start of the first care visit to the end of the last. Paid gaps can then be used to spend additional time with people as appropriate.
Shift-based pay is already the norm for homecare in other countries, and for almost every other job role in the UK. A tiny number of best practice homecare employers offer shift-based pay in the UK.
Commissioning practices by local authorities must change for this just approach to employment in homecare to become the norm.
Other aspects of unpaid working time
Visits that are too short
A common topic of conversation among members of Homecare Voices is how to respond when you are not given enough time to spend with the people you visit. There is usually no flexibility in the scheduled visit times, despite the fact that as humans, we all have good days and slow days. When supporting someone who is living with a health condition like Parkinsons or dementia, this variability often becomes even more pronounced. All those extra five or ten minutes add up. It can takes months before a visit extension is agreed. In the meantime, we go unpaid, and there's no such thing as back-pay.
Ad-hoc extras
Homecare workers are often expected to:
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Liaise with other professionals like District Nurses, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, GPs, 111
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Collect prescriptions
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Buy groceries
These time-consuming extras are generally not factored into scheduled visit times, and often cause us to unavoidably ‘run over’. If somebody needs urgent medical assistance, we must wait with them until a registered professional indicates it is safe for us to leave.
The majority of homecare agencies have now ‘gone digital’, meaning most homecare workers must now clock in and out of each care visit using an app on their phone. Unfortunately, members of Homecare Voices have reported that when clock in / out times show they spent less time than scheduled at a care visit, their pay is reduced accordingly, but when they spend additional time, they are not paid the extra. It would appear that the rollout of time-tracking technology in domiciliary care is being used in a one-sided fashion.
Trips to the office
Homecare workers visit their employer's office on a regular basis to drop off completed paperwork, collect new paperwork and pick up PPE. These activities form an essential part of our role. Yet since many of us are only only paid for the time we spend face-to-face with the people we support (aka for contact-time only), these frequent visits are done in our own time, unpaid.
Training
ACAS clearly states that “if you earn the minimum wage or close to it, your employer should pay you for time spent on mandatory training. This is to make sure your pay does not go below the minimum wage when you're doing mandatory training”.
Yet many members of our community report not being paid for training their employer tells them is mandatory. You should be paid for the time it takes you to complete mandatory training regardless of whether it takes place online or in person.