The short answer
- 48 hours' notice, either wayThat is what the standard contract asks of both of you to end an hourly arrangement. Live-in care moves to 7 days once a carer has worked a full week.
- Illness and hospital are exceptionsThe contract names unplanned hospitalisation and illness, so a visit called off for either is not one you pay for. Anything else is between you and your carer.
- You never pay for a visit that did not happenIf your carer is unwell or cannot come, there is nothing to pay. They may offer a substitute, and our team will do their best to find vetted cover.
- Most of the trouble starts with somebody not being toldAlmost every dispute we see starts with somebody not being told. Tell your carer as soon as you know, even when the news is late.
Everything on this page is taken from the standard client and carer contract you both sign. It is not legal advice, and it does not override anything you and your carer have agreed between you in writing.
Check your situation
Who is cancelling, how much notice, and why
Answer three questions and the tool reads the relevant part of the contract back to you, along with what to do next. PrimeCarers can help you and your carer talk it through, but we do not decide the outcome between you.
You pay for this visit
Payable unless your carer waives it
Under the contract a client who cancels agrees to pay the full cost of the visit, with the exception of unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the two of you agree. At under 48 hours your carer has almost certainly turned down other work for that slot.
What to do
- 1Tell them as soon as you know, because late notice is still better than no notice at all.
- 2Give them the reason. The contract allows for a reason you both agree, and most conversations start there.
- 3If they waive the visit, get it in writing so the booking and the invoice agree.
This reads back the standard client and carer contract, which you can read in full. It is not legal advice, and it does not override anything you and your carer have agreed between you in writing. Notice to end an hourly arrangement is 48 hours either way. PrimeCarers can help the two of you talk, but does not decide the outcome.
When you cancel
What happens when you call off a visit
The pattern is the same whether you are cancelling one morning or stopping altogether. Tell your carer as soon as you know, and give them the reason. Then agree between you what happens to the booking.
- 1
Tell your carer as soon as you know
Straight awayThe contract asks you to let the carer know as soon as possible when your relative cannot receive the service, whether that is illness, an appointment or simply being out. Message through the platform so there is a record of when you said it. - 2
Say why, in a sentence
Same messageUnplanned hospitalisation and illness are named exceptions in the contract, so a cancellation for either is not payable. Anything else is a reason you and your carer agree between you, and that conversation is far easier when you have given the reason unprompted. - 3
Agree what happens to the visit
Before the dayEither it comes off the booking or it stays on it. Where the exceptions do not apply, the carer may waive part or all of the charge at their own discretion, and many will where they have had enough warning to fill the slot. - 4
Check the booking matches
The same dayInvoices are built automatically from the visits you and your carer confirm on the platform. If a visit is coming off, make sure the booking is updated, because the invoice follows the booking rather than the conversation. - 5
Say when you want them back
Before you ring offA pause with an end date is much easier for a self-employed carer to hold open than an open-ended one. If you do not know yet, say that too, and give them a date to check in.
The awkward case is the planned one: the family are visiting for a fortnight, or your mother is going to stay with your sister, and the visits are not needed. That is not an exception in the contract, so it is worth raising weeks ahead rather than days. A carer with a month's warning can fill the slot and will usually be glad of a clear plan. A carer told on the Friday has lost a fortnight of work they cannot replace, and the contract is on their side.
The notice periods
What the notice period does and does not cover
Notice is about ending the arrangement rather than about a single visit, and the two get muddled. Here is what the standard contract sets out.
| Hourly care | Live-in care | |
|---|---|---|
| Notice to end the arrangement | 48 hours, either side | 7 days, either side |
| When the longer notice starts | From the beginning | After 168 hours worked, which is a full week. Before that it is 48 hours |
| What it applies to | Visits already agreed | Visits already agreed |
| Future work | Neither side has to offer or accept any | Neither side has to offer or accept any |
| Changing it | By written agreement on both sides, taking effect 48 hours later | By written agreement on both sides, taking effect a week later |
| Immediate end | Where safety or serious misconduct requires it | Where safety or serious misconduct requires it, and the carer leaves as soon as is practical |
Notice to end the arrangement
- Hourly care
- 48 hours, either side
- Live-in care
- 7 days, either side
When the longer notice starts
- Hourly care
- From the beginning
- Live-in care
- After 168 hours worked, which is a full week. Before that it is 48 hours
What it applies to
- Hourly care
- Visits already agreed
- Live-in care
- Visits already agreed
Future work
- Hourly care
- Neither side has to offer or accept any
- Live-in care
- Neither side has to offer or accept any
Changing it
- Hourly care
- By written agreement on both sides, taking effect 48 hours later
- Live-in care
- By written agreement on both sides, taking effect a week later
Immediate end
- Hourly care
- Where safety or serious misconduct requires it
- Live-in care
- Where safety or serious misconduct requires it, and the carer leaves as soon as is practical
From the standard PrimeCarers client and carer contract. A notice period is not a minimum term: there is no minimum number of visits, no minimum number of weeks and nothing to pay PrimeCarers for stopping.
The line that matters most is the third one. Notice applies to visits already agreed, and it does not oblige either of you to offer or accept future work. That is what makes an hourly arrangement flexible in both directions: you can drop from seven mornings to three without renegotiating anything, and your carer can tell you in September that they cannot do Thursdays from October. It is also why booking a long way ahead is worth doing, since an agreed visit is a commitment on both sides.
When your carer cancels
The cancellation coming the other way
Carers get ill, have families and have emergencies. What matters is what happens to the visit, and none of the four situations below costs you money for care you did not receive.
They are unwell
Nothing to pay
They send a substitute
Your normal rate
You need cover at short notice
Call us
They stop without notice
You may recover costs
There is one situation where a carer can walk out immediately and the contract backs them: where staying would endanger their own safety, or where continuing would be unreasonable. That is rare, and it is almost always preceded by something the family already knows about. If a carer has raised a concern about handling, aggression, an unsafe room or an animal, take it seriously the first time it is mentioned. A carer who feels listened to is far more likely to stay.
When a visit runs late
Late is not the same as missed
A carer running twenty minutes behind is a normal week. A carer who does not arrive and does not call is a different thing, and the contract treats them differently too.
- Running late
They should tell you
The contract asks a carer to make reasonable efforts to let you know about any material delay. A message saying they are twenty minutes behind is what good looks like, and it is what you should expect every time.
- They arrive late
The visit still happens
Most carers stay the full hour and simply finish later. Where that is not possible because of the next booking, agree what gets dropped, and drop the shopping rather than the medication.
- A short visit
Pay for the time that happened
If a visit is cut short, agree the shorter time with your carer and make sure the booking on the platform reflects it, because the invoice is built from the booking.
- No arrival, no message
Ring the carer, then ring us
Try them first. If you cannot reach them and the visit matters, call us on 0203 369 3624 so we can help, particularly where somebody is waiting for medication or is unsafe alone.
- It keeps happening
Continual lateness is grounds to end it
The contract says a client may end the arrangement because of continual lateness, on the usual notice. Raise it early and plainly, the first time it happens, rather than waiting until it becomes the reason you leave.
Chronic lateness is usually a rota problem rather than a person problem, and it is far more common in agency care, where one carer is expected to cover fifteen calls between seven and eleven. When you book a carer directly you are one of a small number of clients they see, and the timings are agreed with you rather than allocated to you. If you are moving from an agency because of missed and rushed calls, why 15 and 30 minute calls fail explains where the pressure comes from.
What is fair on both sides
How the families who never have this problem behave
After thousands of arrangements, the difference between the ones that stay easy and the ones that end badly comes down to a handful of habits, on both sides.
What keeps it easy
- Tell your carer the moment you know a visit will not be needed, even at ten at night
- Give a reason, because the contract turns on the reason
- Agree holidays and Christmas weeks a month ahead, not a week
- Fit a key safe, so nobody is ever locked out of a visit you are paying for
- Update the booking on the platform whenever anything changes, so the invoice follows
- Book a second regular carer for one visit a week, so illness is never a crisis
- Raise lateness or a short visit the first time it happens, calmly
What causes the arguments
- Assuming a text at 7am counts as notice for an 8am visit
- Cancelling a fortnight of visits on the Friday before
- Letting a carer stand outside because nobody is in and nobody rang
- Agreeing a change verbally and leaving the booking untouched
- Ignoring a concern the carer has raised about safety in the house
- Stopping payment to make a point. Raise it with your carer and ask us to help the two of you talk
- Waiting three months of late arrivals before saying anything
The doorstep case deserves its own note because it is the one families find hardest to accept. Where a carer turns up, is available and willing to work, and cannot do the visit because of something at your end, such as nobody being in or no way through the door, the contract lets them charge the agreed fee for that visit. They are expected to take reasonable steps to keep the cost down. It can feel harsh the first time it happens. It is the same principle as any other self-employed trade, because the hour was held for you and the journey was made, and that time cannot be sold to anybody else now.
Keeping it rare
Ten minutes of setting up that saves a year of trouble
Almost everything on this page can be avoided at the start of an arrangement rather than managed during one. Work through this before the first visit if you can, and afterwards if you cannot.
Set this up in the first fortnight
0 of 10 ticked
Getting in
Agreeing the week
Cover
One extra visit
A second regular carer doing one visit a week is the cheapest insurance in home care. They already know the house, the medication and your relative, so an illness or a holiday becomes a message rather than a search.
If the pattern of cancellations is coming from your relative's health rather than from anyone's diary, the answer may be a different shape of care rather than better admin. How many visits a week does my parent need will tell you whether the pattern still fits, when live-in care becomes cheaper than visits covers the point at which visits stop being the right tool, and respite care is worth reading if the cancellations are because a family carer is running out of road.
Questions
Questions about cancellations and late visits
PrimeCarers charges nothing. There is no joining fee, no minimum term and no platform cancellation charge. The visit itself is a separate question: your carer is self-employed, and the standard contract you both sign says a visit cancelled by the client is payable unless the reason is unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the two of you agree. Your carer may waive part or all of it at their own discretion.
48 hours for hourly care, and the same applies to your carer. Live-in care moves to 7 days once the carer has worked a full week, which the contract counts as 168 hours. Notice applies to visits already agreed, and neither side is obliged to offer or accept future work. You and your carer can agree a different notice period in writing if it suits you both.
No. Unplanned hospitalisation is named in the contract as an exception, so visits cancelled because of it are not payable. Tell your carer as soon as you can and say roughly how long you expect the stay to be. It is worth talking about restarting before the discharge date rather than after, because the first week home is usually the week most help is needed.
You do not pay for a visit that did not happen. Try their phone first, and if you cannot reach them and the visit matters, ring us on 0203 369 3624 and we will do our best to find vetted cover at short notice. If a carer stops without the notice period and the reason is not illness or a serious emergency, the contract says they are not entitled to payment for visits in that period and that you may recover reasonable costs such as replacement care.
Yes. Carers are self-employed and may send a suitably qualified substitute at their own discretion, arranging and paying that person themselves. You can object for a good reason, such as concerns about the substitute's qualifications, safety, or ability to meet the care needs you have agreed. Ask who they are, what experience they have, and for the care plan to be handed over properly.
Your carer should make reasonable efforts to tell you about any material delay, and most stay the full hour and finish later. If a visit is cut short, agree the shorter time and update the booking, because the invoice is built from the booking. If lateness keeps happening, the contract says you may end the arrangement because of continual lateness, on the usual notice. Raise it the first time it happens rather than waiting until the tenth.
The contract lets a carer charge the agreed fee for a visit where they were available and willing to work and could not do it because of something at your end, such as no answer at the door. They are expected to take reasonable steps to keep the cost down. A key safe and an agreed no-answer routine prevent almost all of these, and are worth sorting out in the first fortnight.
Yes, and the earlier you say the better. A planned break is not one of the named exceptions, so it is a conversation with your carer rather than an automatic pause. Weeks of warning let them fill the slot and they will usually be glad of a clear plan. Days of warning means they have lost work they cannot replace. Agree it in writing and update the bookings so the invoice matches.