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 - travel, waiting and training - 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 2027 rollout of guaranteed hours contract and the 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 and low mileage rates obscure 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 & a mandatory mileage rate for all homecare workers
How to get there
For government
Legislate to recognise all periods of up to one hour between homecare visits as payable working time
Introduce a mandatory mileage rate at the maximum approved rate for all care workers.
Invest sustainably in adult social care via local authorities
For local authorities
Only commission homecare providers who pay workers by the shift i.e. from the start of the first visit to the end of the last according to a transparent hourly rate for all working time rather than a blended headline rate.
Require that commissioned providers limit the number of unpaid breaks per shift in keeping with Working Time Regulations 1998.
Only commission homecare providers who pay workers the maximum approved mileage rate
Only commission homecare providers who pay workers for all training time
Carry out regular quality assurance checks at commissioned homecare providers, checking payslips against rotas. This is significantly less resource intensive with shift-based pay.
When carrying out quality assurance checks, select names randomly from a complete staff list. Never ask providers to supply a curated list of staff to contact.
Where a commissioned fee increase is justified on the basis of pay compliance, require that providers evidence - per contract period - that the uplift reached workers' payslips
For employers
Pay field-based staff from the start of the first care visits in a run to the end of the last according to a transparent hourly rate.
Limit the number of unpaid breaks per shift in line with Working Time Regulations 1998.
Pay the maximum approved mileage rate.
Where a local authority does not pay enough to remunerate field-based staff as above, reach out to other affected homecare providers and challenge it together. Rise above instead of racing to the bottom.
Just because others are doing it, it does not make it ok. Your field-based staff are not in the same boat at you. They deserve better and so do the people they support.