Care Worker Pay and Rights: A Complete UK Guide for 2026

Understanding Your Rights as a Care Worker

Care work is demanding, skilled, and essential. Whether you work for a domiciliary care agency, in a care home, or as a personal assistant, understanding your employment rights helps ensure you're treated fairly and paid correctly.

This guide covers everything UK care workers need to know about pay, rights, and entitlements in 2026.

National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage

Current Rates (April 2025 onwards)

The government sets minimum wage rates annually, typically increasing in April.

Age Group	Hourly Rate (from April 2025)
21 and over (National Living Wage)	£11.44
18–20	£8.60
Under 18	£6.40
Apprentice rate	£6.40

Important: These are minimum rates. Many care agencies pay above these rates, particularly for experienced workers or those with specialist skills.

What Counts Towards Minimum Wage

Your employer must pay at least minimum wage for all hours worked, including:

• Time spent providing care
• Travel time between clients (more on this below)
• Training time (if attendance is mandatory)
• Time spent on administrative tasks
• Time spent waiting at a client's request
• Handover periods

Not included:

• Genuinely voluntary overtime
• Breaks where you're free to leave the premises
• Travel from home to your first client (and from last client home)

Travel Time Pay: Know Your Rights

The Legal Position

Travel time between clients during your working day counts as working time and must be paid at least at minimum wage. This was confirmed by HMRC and reinforced by employment tribunal cases.

Example: If you finish with Client A at 10:00 and your next visit to Client B starts at 10:30, but it takes you 15 minutes to travel, that 15 minutes is working time.

Common Issues

Many care agencies historically didn't pay for travel time, leading to HMRC investigations and back-pay claims running into millions of pounds across the sector. Legitimate agencies now include travel time pay.

Red flags to watch for:

• No mention of travel time in your contract
• Being told travel time is "included" in your hourly rate but the rate doesn't change regardless of travel
• Only being paid for "contact time" with clients

Mileage and Travel Expenses

Separate from travel time pay, you may be entitled to mileage reimbursement if you use your own vehicle.

HMRC Approved Mileage Rates (2025/26):

• Cars and vans: 45p per mile (first 10,000 miles), 25p per mile thereafter
• Motorcycles: 24p per mile
• Bicycles: 20p per mile

Not all employers pay the full HMRC rate, but any shortfall can be claimed as tax relief.

Types of Employment Contract

Employee vs. Self-Employed

Most care workers are employees, which provides more rights and protections. Some agencies incorrectly classify workers as self-employed to avoid employer obligations.

Signs you're actually an employee (regardless of what your contract says):

• You work set hours or shifts
• You wear a uniform or follow company policies
• You use company equipment or software
• The agency controls how you do your work
• You can't send someone else in your place

If you're incorrectly classified as self-employed, you may be missing out on rights like holiday pay, sick pay, and pension contributions.

Zero-Hours Contracts

Zero-hours contracts are common in domiciliary care. Under such contracts:

Your rights:

• You're not obliged to accept work offered
• You should still receive minimum wage for hours worked
• You accrue holiday entitlement based on hours worked
• You have protection against unfair treatment
• Exclusivity clauses (preventing you working elsewhere) are banned

Challenges:

• No guaranteed hours or income
• Difficulty planning finances
• May affect benefits or mortgage applications

Guaranteed Hours Contracts

Some agencies offer contracts with guaranteed minimum hours (e.g., 20 hours per week). This provides more stability but may require more commitment.

Holiday Entitlement

Your Legal Right

All workers, regardless of contract type, are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid annual leave per year. For full-time workers (5 days per week), this equals 28 days including bank holidays.

Part-time and zero-hours workers: Your holiday entitlement is calculated pro-rata based on hours worked. For zero-hours workers, this is typically calculated as 12.07% of hours worked.

Example: If you work 20 hours per week on average, you're entitled to: 20 hours × 5.6 weeks = 112 hours of paid holiday per year

Calculating Holiday Pay

Holiday pay should reflect your normal earnings, including:

• Regular overtime
• Commission or bonuses
• Travel time pay

Recent case law (including the Harpur Trust v Brazel ruling) confirmed that part-year workers receive full holiday entitlement, not a pro-rated amount based on weeks worked.

Sick Pay

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

If you're too ill to work, you may qualify for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from day 4 of illness.

SSP rates (2025/26): £116.75 per week for up to 28 weeks

To qualify:

• You must earn at least £123 per week on average
• You must be ill for 4 or more consecutive days
• You must notify your employer according to their rules

Occupational Sick Pay

Some employers offer more generous sick pay schemes that start from day 1 or pay more than SSP. Check your contract or employee handbook.

Pension Rights

Auto-Enrolment

If you're aged 22 or over and earn more than £10,000 per year, your employer must automatically enrol you into a workplace pension.

Minimum contribution rates:

• Employee: 5% of qualifying earnings
• Employer: 3% of qualifying earnings
• Total: 8%

You can opt out, but you'll lose the employer contribution—essentially free money towards your retirement.

The NEST Scheme

Many care agencies use NEST (National Employment Savings Trust), a government-backed pension scheme designed for auto-enrolment.

Protection from Unfair Treatment

Whistleblowing Protection

If you report concerns about care quality, safety, or illegal practices, you're protected from dismissal or detrimental treatment under whistleblowing legislation.

Protected disclosures include:

• Concerns about client safety or neglect
• Criminal offences
• Breaches of regulations
• Dangers to health and safety
• Environmental damage
• Cover-ups of wrongdoing

You should report concerns to your manager first, but if they don't act (or are involved), you can report directly to CQC or other relevant bodies.

Discrimination Protection

You're protected from discrimination based on:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

This applies to recruitment, pay, promotion, training, and dismissal.

Harassment and Bullying

You have the right to work without harassment—from colleagues, managers, or clients. Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent harassment and address it when reported.

Working Time Regulations

Maximum Hours

You cannot be forced to work more than an average of 48 hours per week unless you sign an opt-out agreement. This average is usually calculated over 17 weeks.

Rest Breaks

You're entitled to:

• Daily rest: 11 consecutive hours between working days
• Weekly rest: 24 hours uninterrupted rest per week (or 48 hours per fortnight)
• In-work rest: 20 minutes if working more than 6 hours

Important: Many care workers don't get proper breaks. Short visits with travel between them can mean working for hours without a break. This is a common issue in the sector.

Night Workers

If you regularly work at night, additional protections apply, including health assessments and limits on working hours.

Flexible Working

Your Right to Request

All employees with 26 weeks' service have the right to request flexible working. From April 2024, this right applies from day one of employment.

Employers must consider requests reasonably and can only refuse for specific business reasons.

Examples of flexible working:

• Part-time hours
• Compressed hours (e.g., 4 longer days instead of 5)
• Flexitime
• Job sharing
• Working from home (limited applicability in care)
• Term-time working

What to Do If Your Rights Are Breached

Step 1: Raise It Informally

Talk to your manager or HR department. Many issues are resolved through conversation.

Step 2: Use the Grievance Procedure

If informal discussion doesn't work, submit a formal grievance in writing. Your employer must investigate and respond.

Step 3: Seek External Advice

Free sources of employment advice:

• ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service): 0300 123 1100
• Citizens Advice: citizensadvice.org.uk
• Trade unions: If you're a member (e.g., Unison, GMB)

Step 4: Employment Tribunal

For serious breaches, you may be able to bring a claim to an employment tribunal. Time limits apply (usually 3 months minus one day from the event).

Note: You must usually go through ACAS Early Conciliation before bringing a tribunal claim.

Understanding Your Payslip

Your payslip must show:

Item	What to Check
Gross pay	Total before deductions—does it reflect all hours including travel time?
Hours worked	Are all your hours recorded correctly?
Tax code	Is it correct? (1257L is most common for 2025/26)
National Insurance	Are deductions correct for your earnings?
Pension	Is your employer contributing their 3%?
Net pay	The amount you actually receive
Holiday balance	Some payslips show accrued holiday

Summary: Your Key Rights

✅ At least National Living Wage for all hours worked, including travel time
✅ 5.6 weeks' paid holiday per year (pro-rated for part-time)
✅ Statutory Sick Pay from day 4 of illness
✅ Automatic pension enrolment with employer contributions
✅ Maximum 48 hours average working week (unless opted out)
✅ Protection from discrimination and unfair dismissal
✅ Written statement of employment within 2 months
✅ Right to request flexible working from day one

Further Resources

• ACAS Employment Rights – Free employment advice
• Gov.uk Employment Rights – Official guidance
• CQC Whistleblowing – Report care concerns
• Care Rate Calculator – Understand how your pay relates to agency rates
• Care Agency Charge Rates vs Pay Rates – Why agencies charge more than they pay

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Last updated: January 2026. Employment law changes regularly—always check current rates and regulations on official government websites.