The first two weeks on the platform: where new carers get stuck

This is for carers who have just been approved and are in the first days of actually finding work: the first job you apply for, the first client you meet, the first visit you attend, and the first payment that lands in your account. It follows four carers who called our team during exactly that stretch, in their own words: what stopped them moving forward, and what our team said to help them past it.

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What happens after your profile goes live

Once your profile is approved and live, you are self-employed: working for yourself rather than being employed by PrimeCarers. Our guide to becoming a self-employed carer takes you through the steps in full. Nothing is sent to you the way a shift is sent by an agency. You look for work yourself, browsing job posts, the requests for care that families put up on the platform, and applying to the ones that suit you. An application does not guarantee an interview or a booking. Clients often have several applications to weigh up, and consider your rate, how far you are from them, and whether your availability matches what they need.

A first meeting with a client, often called an introductory visit or a meet and greet, is usually a short visit to see whether you suit each other, before any regular booking begins. Several of the carers below got stuck somewhere between an approved profile and their first paid visit, and each one called our team. In every case, the problem turned out to be something ordinary once someone explained it.

The first application: why nothing seems to happen

A carer who cannot drive, and was looking specifically for live-in work, where a carer moves into a client’s home and stays for an agreed number of days, called us after applying to several jobs a few days earlier. She had heard nothing back and wanted to know whether there was someone she needed to speak to.

Our team pulled up her profile and confirmed the applications had gone in. The explanation was straightforward: once you apply, the client has to look at your profile and decide, and some take a while to respond. Applying for work through the platform is, as one member of our team put it, a numbers game. The more jobs you apply for, the better your chances, and a slow reply rarely means anything is wrong with your application. Our article on why good carers don’t get work goes further into what changes that.

Because she wanted live-in work only, which limits how many suitable posts appear at any one time, our team offered to follow up with the clients she had already applied to, and to add her to a list so she would be called directly if a suitable live-in role came in. They also asked her to check her email and messages regularly, since mobile coverage where she lived was not always reliable. Our carer salary report is a useful place to check what carers typically charge.

She was added to the follow-up list and encouraged to keep applying. This story is here because it shows the most common way a new carer gets stuck: not a fault in the application, but a wait that feels like rejection until someone explains that applying, and reapplying, is simply how the platform works.

The first interview: arriving without an address

A carer entirely new to the platform had her first ever introductory visit booked for that afternoon. She and the client had messaged each other on the platform, the client had asked to meet her, and the visit had been scheduled. When she checked the details that morning, the calendar entry showed only a postcode, with no street name or house number, and she had never been given a phone number for the client. As a newcomer, she had assumed these details would simply appear once the visit was booked.

She called our team with the clock running. Our team confirmed she had not asked the client for their address or number directly through the platform’s messages, but rather than leave her to sort it out with time running short, they said they would call the client directly to get the full address and a contact number, and pass them on within five to ten minutes.

We do not know whether the details reached her in time, since the call ends there. The story is here because it shows how much a first interview depends on details a more experienced carer would chase up as a matter of course, and how quickly our team can step in when a new carer is caught out close to a visit’s start time.

The first visit: booked on the platform, not arranged by phone

A carer who had gone almost a year without a single booking finally arranged her first ever visit: an older man needed help showering and a leg massage after an injury. She had seen his phone number appear once he messaged her, and rather than fight her way back into an account that had stopped accepting her password nearly a week before, she called him directly and agreed a time over the phone.

When she rang our team, it was about the password, but a second issue came up alongside it. The visit had never been booked on the platform, and the client had suggested paying her in cash. Our article on the scams that target carers looks at requests like this. Our team explained why booking mattered: a visit only counts as protected once it has been accepted on the platform, because if a client does not pay, PrimeCarers can only chase payment for a visit that was actually booked. Work booked and paid for through PrimeCarers is covered by PrimeCarers’ insurance; work a carer arranges directly with a client, outside the platform, is not, so she would need her own public liability cover for that visit instead. Our guide on whether you need insurance as a self-employed carer covers this in full.

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 then talked her through resetting her password, step by step: finding the “forgot password” link, checking her spam folder, and eventually sending a fresh login link over WhatsApp when the reset email never arrived. They also mentioned she had well over twenty job invitations, requests sent by a client or by the platform inviting her to apply for a specific role, sitting unopened in her account. She was asked to message the client and get him to call our team himself, to book the visit properly before she went round that evening.

This story is here because it shows how easily a first visit can happen the wrong way round, arranged directly because the app would not cooperate, and why our team insists a visit is booked before a carer attends, even when both are keen to finally get started.

After the first visit: commission, and fitting the work around your own life

A carer who also cares for her own adult daughter, who has a disability, at home, had just finished her first visit with a new client: an older woman recovering from an illness. She had prompted the client’s medication, made her a snack exactly as she liked it, and followed the client’s own written instructions about her care. When her coordinator called to debrief afterwards, she had one practical question: her rate was £20 an hour, so why would she only take home £16?

Our team explained that the platform’s commission, its fee for finding the client and running the booking, is deducted from the advertised rate before it reaches the carer’s account. For a straightforward visit like this one, commission usually brings a £20 hourly rate down to around £16 taken home. Our guide to handling tax and money as a self-employed carer explains where commission and tax both fit.

She also had to work out how much of this client’s care she could take on. The client wanted regular cover, but she could only manage occasional weekend afternoons, since she needs to be home in the early evening for her own daughter’s medication. Rather than commit to a fixed pattern she might not keep, our team suggested she come whenever the client asked and she was free, and confirmed any such visit would still be booked and paid properly, even one arranged at short notice. Our payment checklist for self-employed carers covers what to check if a payment seems to go missing.

Her coordinator confirmed the visit would be booked and told her more work should follow, since the client had responded well to her first visit. This story is here because it shows that even a visit that goes well leaves two ordinary questions unanswered: why the pay is lower than the headline rate, and how to set an availability that a carer’s own responsibilities at home can actually sustain.

What to do next

• Keep applying even when you hear nothing back. Clients often take time to respond, and applying for more jobs is the single biggest thing you can do to get booked.
• As soon as an interview or visit is arranged, ask the client for their full address and a contact number through the platform’s messages, rather than assuming these will appear automatically.
• Make sure you can log in and accept a visit before agreeing a time with a client. If you cannot get into your account, call our team rather than arranging the visit directly with the client.
• Never agree to be paid in cash, or attend a visit that has not been booked on the platform. If a client offers, ask them to call us and book it properly first.
• Ask us to explain any deduction on your pay that you do not understand, and be upfront with your coordinator about the hours and days you can realistically commit to.

Related reading

• Registered for years, never booked: why good carers don’t get work, and what changes it
• The scams that target carers, and the clients who spot them first
• The week your money doesn’t come: a payment checklist for self-employed carers
• Do I need insurance to be a self-employed carer?