Why Become a Private Carer?

Private Carers earn more than agency carers, choose their own clients and work flexibly. In addition, lower costs for clients mean visits are longer and less rushed.

Why You Should Become a Private Carer

Earn More

One of the primary motivators for people getting into private care is that you can take keep much more of the money you earn compared to when working for an agency.

Flexibility

For many carers with families at home, flexibility is an essential part of their work. Working privately makes this much more possible.

Provide Better Care

Private care might be a good option if you are tired of working long domiciliary care shifts without enough time to provide the quality of care you know you are capable of. With private care, visits are a minimum of 30 minutes but usually at least an hour, and because prices are lower, clients can afford to not have carers rush their work.

Control Who You Work For

Control is one of the other significant benefits of being a private carer. If you don’t like working with a client, you don’t need to. You are the boss.

The Challenges of Being a Private Carer

Here are a few downsides that come with becoming a private carer:

More Responsibility

Independent carers are responsible for more than just getting the job done. They need to manage the family as well. On top of that, you are responsible for making sure the care plan is appropriate, and the environment is safe.

Hard to find clients

Accessing a steady stream of clients can be difficult, especially if you don’t have any yet or haven’t built up word-of-mouth referrals.

Contracting

You will need a contract in place between yourself and your clients to ensure that you are both working towards the same goal and that your liability is kept to a minimum. You can use ours by clicking on this link to download it

Getting Paid

Getting paid on time and in full is often very difficult. More often than you would like to think, clients don’t pay their carers; whether they are trying to save a bit of cash or have simply run out, it is you that ends up out of pocket

Paying Tax

You will have to register with HMRC to pay your taxes. This can be confusing at first and mean that you need to save as you go in anticipation of the end-of-year tax bill.

Personal Safety

Personal safety: Working alone in other people’s houses, without any oversight, can be dangerous, especially if no one knows where you will be at any given point in time.

Ultimately, being an independent carer is fantastic, and the hurdles are all manageable. However, you don’t have to figure it all out.

Work With Platforms, Like PrimeCarers:

If you want to become a private carer, you could do it alone or work with a Platform like PrimeCarers. Platforms, also known as marketplaces, handle all the above-mentioned issues for you and usually charge a 12.5%-20% commission, which is a far cry from the 50%-70% an agency takes typically. This is a list of a few of the benefits of working with a platform gives you:

• Access clients – We find your clients, who get in touch with you directly
• Get paid on time – You are paid, in full, within 7 days of each visit
• Don’t sweat the small stuff – We handle the admin, like contracting and scheduling, so you know what to do and where to be
• Stay safe – We know where you are going and can access the identity of the person you work for.
• Feel supported – We are at the end of a phone or a chat, ready to support you

Ready to Get Started?

Read our full guide on becoming a self-employed carer!