Paid in cash, or going direct: what carers lose, and what to say

This is for carers who have been offered cash in hand, asked to arrange work directly with a client, or tempted to step outside PrimeCarers when a payment feels slow. It follows three real situations from calls to our team: a carer flagging a peer quietly moving jobs off the platform, a carer close to asking a client to pay her directly after a payment dispute, and a carer who wanted cash in hand rather than trust a payment record. Each shows what actually protects a self-employed carer, and what you give up once money stops going through the platform.

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The situation carers are in

Self-employed care work runs on trust: a client trusts a carer they may have met only once or twice, and a carer trusts the money owed will arrive, usually on a set weekly cycle. When that cycle feels slow, or a client suggests it would be simpler to pay cash or sort things out between themselves, going along with it can look like the easier option. Our guide to agency, platform, or on your own looks at this trade-off more broadly. The three stories below are about carers who were offered that shortcut, came close to taking it, or watched someone else take it, and what it would have actually meant for them.

A carer who saw it happen to someone else

A carer who arranges live-in cover, care where a carer moves in and stays with a client, for several clients at once called our team to relaunch a stalled job post. While on the phone, she raised a concern about another carer on the platform: when offered a placement, that carer would sometimes bring in a different carer to do the work, and arrange for her to be paid directly by the client instead of through PrimeCarers.

She had decided not to work with this carer again because of it.

She’s got some sort of semi-agency thing going on. It takes money and time to build a business, and then people go and do that. I don’t think it’s cool.

Our team explained that bringing in another carer to cover a placement is not automatically a problem: a carer may arrange her own cover, as long as the client knows and agrees. What is not acceptable is doing it quietly, and taking payment for it outside the platform. Work arranged this way is not covered by PrimeCarers’ insurance, and a substitute brought in like this has not been through PrimeCarers’ checks on identity, right to work and DBS, the criminal record check used in care work. Neither the client nor the substitute has the protection that comes with a normal platform booking.

PrimeCarers is an introductory platform and does not provide, manage, supervise or clinically assess care. Clients remain responsible for checking carer documentation, interviewing carers, checking suitability for their specific needs, and agreeing the scope of care directly with the carer.

Our team thanked her for flagging it and made a note of it, then relaunched her job post to more applicants. This story matters because it shows that going direct is not only a risk a carer takes for herself: when it happens quietly, on someone else’s placement, it is another carer and a client who end up exposed without knowing it.

A carer who nearly did it herself

A live-in carer travelled to Scotland at short notice to cover four days of urgent care, at an agreed day rate of £200. She dropped her other plans to get there, and by her own account did the job well; the client asked her to come back for future work.

When the placement ended, her payment didn’t arrive when she had been told to expect it, and different members of our team gave her different answers about the timing. The amount she could see was also lower than the £200 a day agreed, because of PrimeCarers’ commission, the percentage the platform keeps from each booking to cover checks, payment processing and support like this, which nobody had explained to her clearly beforehand. Our page on handling tax and money responsibilities as a self-employed carer sets out how commission and take-home pay fit together, and our payment checklist for self-employed carers covers what to check when a payment feels late. With another placement due to start days later and no money yet in her account, she told our team that if it wasn’t sorted by four o’clock that afternoon, she would ask the client, who had already paid her travel costs personally, to pay her directly instead and cancel the payment through PrimeCarers.

That job was not easy, it’s a very difficult one. And when you have done the best and been professional and done everything as per the book, then when it comes to payment being this inconvenienced, it’s really heartbreaking.

Our team escalated the case that same afternoon to the client’s account manager, asking for it to be resolved the same day. We do not know the exact time the payment reached her account, but the escalation happened as she’d asked. What she was threatening in that moment was real. Had she taken payment directly and cancelled the platform payment, the work she had already done would have stopped being covered by PrimeCarers’ insurance and payment protection from that point on. If something had then gone wrong, or the client had later disputed her hours, chasing it would have been hers alone to do; our article on what self-employed carers can do when a client doesn’t pay sets out how limited those options are once an arrangement sits outside the platform. This story is here because it shows how ordinary frustration, a late payment, a rate that looks smaller than expected, can tip into a decision that costs a carer the very protection she is frustrated about not feeling.

Cash in hand versus a record you can point to

A live-in carer near the end of a placement she had been trying to leave for several days called our team saying she would not go without cash in her hand. She had struggled for days to get an answer about when she could leave and what she was owed, and she had no money of her own for the journey home.

Our team went through what she had actually earned: money already showing in her payment account, due to reach her bank account that night, with the rest to follow on the usual weekly cycle once the client’s invoice, the bill sent to the client for hours worked, had been processed. The client had also arranged to pay for her flight and taxi home directly, so she would not be stranded. Our team offered, as a gesture rather than an obligation, a small amount of extra cash toward her transport, and asked her to send a written list of exactly what she needed by email, so there was a clear record of what had been agreed. She agreed to send it.

The call ended there, so we do not know how the rest of it was settled. This story is here because it shows the difference between money that is recorded, traceable and dated, and a promise of cash that exists only for as long as someone is willing to honour it. Even when a placement is ending badly, a payment record is something a carer can point back to. Our guide to handling money for clients as a private carer covers how to keep that kind of record for any cash you do handle.

What to say if a client suggests it

If a client suggests paying cash, or arranging things directly to avoid a fee, it usually comes from wanting to help, not from wanting to cause a problem, so there is no need to make it awkward. A few honest lines cover most situations.

• “I’m not able to take payment outside the platform, it’s what keeps me insured while I’m caring for you.”
• “If I did that, I’d need my own liability cover, and any problem with payment would be down to me alone to sort out, so I’d rather keep it going through PrimeCarers.”
• “I can take a bit of cash for a specific cost, like a bus fare, but the pay for my hours needs to go through the usual account so there’s a record of it.”

If a client keeps pushing after that, it is worth treating it as information rather than an inconvenience. Our article on the scams that target carers covers other signs that an arrangement isn’t what it first appears. If you ever do take on private work of your own, separate from PrimeCarers, remember car insurance is a separate matter: you need business use cover for your own car, and hire and reward cover too if you charge for mileage. Our guides on whether you need insurance as a self-employed carer and what car insurance a home carer needs go through both in full.

What to do next

• If a client suggests cash or a direct arrangement, say clearly that it needs to go through PrimeCarers so the placement stays insured and the payment stays protected.
• Before agreeing to any substitution or swap-in arrangement, make sure the client knows and agrees, and that any payment for it goes through the platform rather than to you or another carer directly.
• If a payment is late or lower than you expected, ask our team to explain exactly what it is and when it is due, rather than assuming the worst. Commission and payment cycles are usually the reason, and our team can show you the figures.
• If you ever need cash for a specific cost, such as a fare home, agree the exact amount in writing, an email is enough, rather than relying on a verbal promise.
• Keep your own public liability cover, and hire and reward cover on your car insurance if you charge for mileage, in place for any time you take on care work of your own outside the platform.

Related reading

• Agency, platform, or on your own: the trade you are actually making
• When a client doesn’t pay: what self-employed carers can do
• The week your money doesn’t come: a payment checklist for self-employed carers
• The scams that target carers, and the clients who spot them first