Working as a personal assistant: employed or self-employed?

gov.uk's page on direct payments tells people who receive them that they "may become an employer if you pay someone to care for you". Skills for Care puts it more plainly in its information for individual employers: an individual employer is "a person directly employing a personal assistant for their care and support". The employment rules are the same whether the money comes from a direct payment, a personal health budget or the person's own savings.

The different types of support worker sets PA work alongside other care roles. What makes PA work different is that there is no agency between you and the person you support, and nobody else to go to if the arrangement goes wrong. So status, pay and what is written down matter more than they would in an agency job. The carer resources hub has the rest of the guides on pay, checks and tax.

HMRC's Employment Status Manual on care workers is written for its own staff, and it is direct about this. For care in the client's home, it says "the case law tests normally indicate that a careworker who looks after a client in the client's home is likely to be an employee", because there will often be "a significant right of control, for example the carer required to arrive at a pre-arranged time and perform tasks at the request of the client". Where the client is the employer, it expects them to operate PAYE, and suggests a simpler scheme or a relative's help where they would find that hard.

For you, being employed means your tax and National Insurance are taken off before you are paid. You are paid at least the National Living Wage, £12.71 an hour at 21 and over from 1 April 2026. You get paid holiday, Statutory Sick Pay and a workplace pension once you qualify. gov.uk's page on employee rights lists the rest, including minimum notice and protection against unfair dismissal.

Your employer carries the other side of it. They register with HMRC as an employer, run payroll and auto-enrol you into a pension. They must also hold employers' liability insurance of at least £5 million from the day they take you on, and gov.uk says they can be fined £2,500 for every day they are not properly insured. Skills for Care's factsheet for individual employers sets these duties out for your employer, and adds a right to work check on you and a written contract from day one.

Many employers get help from a direct payment support service or a payroll company, so your payslip may come from a firm you have never heard of. That does not change who your employer is.

These come from HMRC's care worker guidance and gov.uk's pages on employees and self-employed people. No single one settles it; they are applied to the whole arrangement. Skills for Care's factsheet on contracting a self-employed PA says it in a box of its own: employment status "is determined by the facts of the working relationship", "not by the title or label they give it".

That factsheet also explains why self-employment rarely fits a PA role. It says contracting a self-employed PA "is not ordinarily suited to people requiring an ongoing, personal service", where the person needs the same PA on the same days every week. If you are offered a regular PA job, several days a week, working to the person's routine, expect it to be employment, whatever the first conversation called it.

Councils look at the same facts, because the direct payment is public money. Warwickshire County Council, for example, tells people on direct payments that there are "very few instances" when a carer or PA working for them can be classed as self-employed, and that being self-employed in another role "does not determine their correct status when they work for you". That matters if you already work for yourself: being self-employed with your own clients does not make a PA job self-employed too. Other councils set their own rules on paying a self-employed worker from a direct payment, and those differ from one council to the next. HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool gives HMRC's view on a particular arrangement, and either of you can use it. HMRC says it will stand by the result as long as the information given was accurate. Skills for Care also recommends the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group's guidance on whether a PA is employed.

If the arrangement is self-employed in fact, the tax is yours: how to pay tax as a self-employed carer covers Self Assessment, and handling tax and money as a self-employed private carer covers the records. Your own public liability insurance is yours too, and do I need insurance to become a self-employed carer? explains the cover.

For an employed PA, the first items are the law. gov.uk's page on the written statement of employment particulars says the main statement must be given on the first day, and its page on payslips says an employee must have one on or before payday. If your employer is unsure how, the council's direct payment support service can help them.

Keep copies of everything, including messages agreeing changes to your hours. Payslips are proof of your earnings and tax paid, and a written agreement is what you point to if a payment is disputed. If you drive for the job, travel time and mileage for carers covers what to agree and what you can claim.

On PrimeCarers the rate you set is the rate the client pays, and our commission comes out of it rather than being added on top: 20% on visits of less than six hours, 15% on a single visit of six hours or more, and 12.5% on live-in care. The VAT on it is paid out of our commission. Carers typically advertise £18 to £25 an hour, with our fee included. Nothing is deducted for tax, so you set that aside yourself, and payment follows each client's billing rather than a fixed day for everyone. What carers earn on PrimeCarers sets out the commission and a week of work in full.

The checks are different too. Before a profile goes live, PrimeCarers arranges a digital identity check through Yoti, a right to work check, an enhanced DBS check issued within the last 18 months, and a recorded video interview: 14 questions, about 45 minutes in one sitting, with one retake of each answer. The interview looks at how you care for people, not clinical knowledge. Your skills and experience go on your profile in your own words. There is no place for certificates, but you can invite past employers or families to leave a reference on your profile. PrimeCarers does not verify either, so have referees and certificates ready for a family who asks. DBS changes for self-employed carers explains how a self-employed carer, or a PA employed directly by the person they support, can now apply for their own enhanced check.

What families are told about direct payments says a direct payment can pay a self-employed carer the family has chosen, that the contract for the care is between the person and the carer, and that a direct payment does not change its terms. It also tells families that the carer's invoice is their spending record, and that each council has its own rules on paying a self-employed carer, which direct payments by council collects. For a younger disabled adult arranging their own support, what families are told about a live-in personal assistant sets employing a PA beside engaging a self-employed carer.

You can be employed and self-employed at the same time, and gov.uk says so on its page about self-employed people. Nothing in the contract you sign with a PrimeCarers client stops you working for other people as well, but read what your PA contract says about other work. If you want families near you to be able to find you for the days you are not working as a PA, you can register as a carer on PrimeCarers, or first see the carer jobs open near you. Families search and choose, so registering does not bring bookings on its own. Holiday pay, sick pay and pensions when self-employed covers what you give up on the self-employed side, and self-employed or agency carer compares the two ways of working more widely.