The short answer
- You set the rate, and it is yoursCarers on PrimeCarers typically charge £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, rather than being paid a wage an employer has already taken a cut from.
- You choose who you work forA rota does not decide your clients for you. If somebody is not a good fit, you are free to stop taking their bookings.
- The admin becomes yours to runA contract with each client, getting paid, and registering with HMRC are no longer somebody else's job. None of it is difficult, but all of it is now on you.
- A platform narrows most of that gapRegistering through PrimeCarers arranges the enhanced DBS route, the introductions and the payment processing that going fully independent leaves for you to sort.
Rates are what carers on PrimeCarers charge, with our fee included, checked against PrimeCarers pricing and gov.uk on 6 September 2026.
Why it can pay to go private
What changes when a client pays you directly
Working privately, rather than for an agency or a care home, changes four things at once: what you are paid, who decides your clients, how long a visit runs, and how you get paid at all. None of these depend on which platform or agency you compare against; they follow from being self-employed and chosen directly rather than assigned.
What you are paid
- Private carer, on a platform
- You set your own rate, typically £18 to £25 an hour with our fee already included in that figure.
- Agency carer
- A fixed wage set by the agency, out of the £28 to £35 an hour it charges the family for the same visit.
- Fully independent
- Whatever you agree directly with a client, commonly £16 to £18 an hour without a platform putting your profile in front of families.
Who chooses your clients
- Private carer, on a platform
- You do. If somebody is not a good fit, you are free to stop taking their bookings.
- Agency carer
- Whoever the rota assigns you to, day to day.
- Fully independent
- Entirely you, once you have found them yourself, usually through word of mouth.
How long a typical visit runs
- Private carer, on a platform
- A one-hour minimum, booked in half hours after that, because the lower rate means a family can afford that hour rather than economising on a shorter call.
- Agency carer
- Often 15 or 30 minutes, so the rota fits in as many calls as possible.
- Fully independent
- Whatever you and the client agree, with no rota to fit around.
Getting paid for a visit
- Private carer, on a platform
- Processed automatically from the agreed booking, rather than you invoicing and chasing it yourself.
- Agency carer
- Paid as a wage through the agency's payroll, on its schedule rather than per visit.
- Fully independent
- Down to you: invoicing each client and following up anything unpaid.
The pay gap is the most visible of the four. An agency charges a family for your time and then sets your wage separately, and the two figures are rarely the same, because the agency's fee also covers its office, its management and its own margin. Working privately, whether through a platform or entirely alone, the rate on your profile or in your agreement is the number a family pays, and it is also the number you are paid from. How much can carers earn on PrimeCarers? sets out the fuller pay picture, including live-in rates and what pushes a rate up.
The visit-length difference matters for the same reason it matters to families: a carer with a full hour, rather than 15 or 30 minutes, has time to notice a change, finish a task properly, and sit with someone rather than rushing to the next call. How many visits a week does my parent need? covers the same point from a family's side, and it is worth reading if you want to understand what the people booking you are weighing up.
What becomes your job
What an employer used to sort out, that is now on you
None of what follows is a reason not to go private. It is the list of things that used to be somebody else's problem, so you know what to plan for rather than discovering it after your first booking.
What lands on you once nobody employs you
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Getting the work
Getting paid
Working alone
Paying your own tax is the item that catches out the most new private carers, not because it is complicated but because nothing is deducted for you as you go, the way PAYE would take it from a payslip. How to pay tax as a self-employed carer and handling tax and money responsibilities as a self-employed private carer both walk through registering, record keeping and what to set aside.
Platform or fully alone
How registering with a platform changes the list above
Everything in the checklist above is real whichever way you go private. Registering through a platform such as PrimeCarers does not remove it, but it arranges several of the harder items for you in exchange for a service fee taken from the rate you set.
A platform like PrimeCarers arranges
- Introductions to families searching for a carer near you, rather than relying on word of mouth alone
- The enhanced DBS route through a registered umbrella body, £49.50 against gov.uk's own fee, kept current on the Update Service
- Payments processed automatically from the agreed booking, rather than you invoicing and chasing a client yourself
- Insurance cover for each visit, when you do not already have your own
Yours to sort if you go fully independent
- Finding your own clients, usually by word of mouth or advertising yourself
- Arranging your own DBS route through an umbrella body, since a self-employed person cannot submit an enhanced application alone
- Writing and keeping your own contract with each client
- Invoicing clients yourself and following up any unpaid hours
Neither route is the wrong one. Going fully independent means keeping more of what a client pays, once you have covered your own DBS route and any insurance, but every item on the right becomes your job rather than somebody else's. I want to be a carer, but how? sets the three routes into paid care work, private platform, agency and care home, side by side in full, and how to become a self-employed carer goes further into what going fully independent involves if that is the route you are weighing.
Deciding, and starting
From deciding to your first private booking
Four steps, and the first two cost nothing beyond your time.
- 1
Weigh the trade-off against your own situation
TodayThe rate, the choice of clients and the longer visits above are real, and so is the admin. Whether that trade suits you depends on how much you want to run yourself against how much you want arranged for you. - 2
Choose a platform or going it alone
This weekA platform arranges the introductions, the enhanced DBS route and the payment processing above in exchange for its fee. Going fully independent keeps more of the rate, at the cost of doing all of it yourself. - 3
Sort your contract and your checks
Before your first visitA written agreement with each client and, if you are going it alone, your own DBS route through an umbrella body and any insurance you want in place. - 4
Tell HMRC once you take a paid booking
Within a month of startingYou are self-employed from your first paid visit, so register for Self Assessment well before the 5 October deadline rather than waiting until it arrives.
Questions
Questions carers ask about going private
Usually, yes, per hour. Carers on PrimeCarers typically set a rate of £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, while an agency pays its own staff a wage that is usually lower than the £28 to £35 an hour it charges a family for the same visit. How much can carers earn on PrimeCarers? sets out the fuller pay picture.
Yes, if your income goes beyond the small trading allowance. You must register for Self Assessment by 5 October in the year after you first earn self-employed income, even before you have worked out what tax you owe. Register for Self Assessment, on gov.uk.
No. A standard or enhanced DBS check can only be submitted by an employer, a voluntary organisation or a body registered with the DBS as an umbrella body, never by a self-employed person on their own behalf. You can apply for a basic check yourself online for £21.50, which shows only unspent convictions. Registering through a platform such as PrimeCarers, or with your own umbrella body, is how a private carer gets the fuller, enhanced check. Who can request a DBS check, on gov.uk.
It depends how you are set up. Through a platform such as PrimeCarers, payments are processed automatically from the agreed booking rather than left to you to chase. Going fully independent, there is no company between you and the client, so recovering an unpaid invoice is a debt you would need to pursue yourself, which is one of the clearer reasons some carers choose a platform over working entirely alone.
Yes. A written agreement covering your rate, the hours agreed, notice and what happens if a visit is cancelled protects you if there is a disagreement later, in the same way an employment contract would. The PrimeCarers contract sets out what carers and clients on the platform agree to, and self employed carer documents lists what else to have ready.
Working alone in somebody else's home carries the same duty of care an employer would otherwise plan for, and it is worth thinking through in advance rather than in the moment. Risk assessment for carers covers what a short first-visit walk-through should look for, checked against the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and HSE's guidance on lone working.
On a platform such as PrimeCarers you stay self-employed and set your own rate, and the platform arranges introductions to families, your enhanced DBS route and payment processing in exchange for a service fee taken from that rate. Going fully independent, you keep more of what a client pays, but finding clients, your DBS route, your contracts and chasing payment are all yours to arrange. I want to be a carer, but how? compares this against working for an agency too.