At least one in eight homecare workers say they are being paid less than the National Minimum Wage, mainly because they don’t get paid for the time they spend travelling between the homes of people they care for, a UNISON survey has revealed.
This is despite the law on travel time being clear, which permits only the exclusion of travel to and from work and breaks from the working day.
The survey of more than 700 care workers found that on average they spend six hours and 49 minutes each week travelling between clients. This means someone not being paid for travel time loses out on around £43 a week to which they are legally entitled.
Half of the respondents also revealed that they had to use their personal mobile phone for work purposes and were not reimbursed, with 28 per cent saying they have to pay for additional items, most commonly work shoes and trousers.
Paying below the minimum wage means many good and experienced care workers are forced to leave the profession because they cannot afford to carry on. Turnover is high, with around 30 per cent of homecare workers leaving the sector every year, at a time when what is desperately needed is a stable, well-trained and experienced workforce.
Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government, said: “Homecare workers provide one of the most valuable public services imaginable. They provide intimate, personal care for elderly and disabled people throughout our society so that they can continue to live independently in their own homes.
“The Government is presiding over a hugely underfunded system and failing to take any meaningful action to end the practice of non-payment for travel time. Meanwhile, many councils commission homecare services from external providers without any consideration or checks over payment of the National Minimum Wage.
“Homecare is a skilled and demanding job. Carers provide vital emotional support to clients and their families, and are often the only human contact that people have from day to day.”
UNISON is calling on the Government to introduce a fully funded homecare system and for councils to adopt UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter. The Charter requires councils to ensure that homecare workers are paid a living wage for their travel time, and enjoy better working conditions that allow them to provide a higher standard of care.
Recent research by the Resolution Foundation estimates that between 160,000 and 220,000 care workers are probably being paid less than the NMW.
UNISON’s own research, based on nearly 200 responses to Freedom of Information requests to councils in the UK, shows that 97 per cent of local authorities are commissioning care that does not guarantee work for providers from one week to the next. As local authorities have seen their budgets from central government squeezed, they have responded by restricting access to care and driving down the amount they are willing to pay for it. This has helped fuel a situation in which workers are increasingly only being paid only for the contact time that they spend with clients – not the time spent travelling between clients.
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