Unpaid working time
Unpaid working time takes many forms in homecare, including:
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Unpaid travel time when travelling from one client to the next (despite this legally counting as working time)
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Unpaid overtime when scheduled visit times are not long enough, or when you are expected to undertake time-consuming tasks on an ad-hoc basis such as ordering and picking up prescriptions and liaising with other professionals on behalf of clients
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Unpaid training
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Unpaid visits to and from your office to collect PPE, return client paperwork and attend meetings
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For low-income workers, this all adds up. the future.
Are you paid for the time you spend travelling between clients?
(Mileage doesn't count - this is about payment for your time at work, not reimbursing you for fuel)
Approximately 75% of homecare workers in England are not paid for the time they spend travelling from one care visit to the next, despite the fact it counts as legal working time.
As long as your true hourly rate of pay does not fall below the National Minimum Wage once travel time has been taken into account, your employer is legally in the clear. Many employers top up wages each time they do payroll to ensure staff are paid the National Minimum Wage. However, there is evidence to suggest that non-compliance is widespread and that HMRC is not taking enforcement action against homecare employers who are illegally paying their staff below the National Minimum Wage as a result of unpaid travel time.
In 2020, ten homecare workers were awarded £10,000 each in backdated pay as a result of unpaid travel time, yet this legal precedent did not prompt change throughout the sector.​
We call for an end to contact-time only pay for homecare workers and support a move to shift-based pay, as is already offered by a small number of best-practice employers. This would:
1. End the illegal underpayment of National Minimum Wage by some homecare employers as a result of unpaid travel time
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2. Provide a starting point for productive conversations about low pay for homecare workers (if people think we are paid £14/hour, they don't recognise an issue in the first place)
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3. Improve retention in social by ensuring pay transparency for England's 644,000 homecare workers
