The short answer
- Not a fixed legal listStatutory rights like the minimum wage and set rest breaks are built for employees. A self-employed carer's terms are agreed with the family instead, or written into the PrimeCarers contract.
- A room and food come with the placementBoth are standard, not an extra a carer has to negotiate for, and neither is deducted from their day rate.
- Rest is the carer's own to planThe PrimeCarers contract leaves the timing and structure of a break to the carer, not the family, though most placements settle into a similar pattern.
- A carer can say no to a taskThe contract gives a carer full say over how they work, including turning down anything they aren't trained or comfortable to do safely.
Rules are for England. Figures are PrimeCarers' own rates and terms, checked against the PrimeCarers contract and gov.uk, September 2026.
The short answer
What a live-in carer can expect, and who decides it
Carers found through PrimeCarers are self-employed contractors, not employees of your family or of PrimeCarers. That matters, because the laws that would normally fix an employee's breaks, holiday and minimum pay don't apply to a self-employed carer in the same way. What fills the gap is the arrangement you agree with the carer directly, plus the standard terms of the PrimeCarers contract. Here is what that covers, and where to read each part in full.
A private room, provided free
The room comes with the placement rather than a tenancy, so there's no rent and no deposit to arrange.
Agreed with the carer
Does a live-in carer pay rent?Meals, shared with your relative
Budget about £5–£10 a day on top of the usual shop, or hand the carer a small food budget instead.
Agreed with the carer
Do live-in carers buy their own food?A day rate the carer sets
Typically £1,120 a week on PrimeCarers, agreed directly rather than paid out as a wage.
Agreed with the carer
How much is a live-in carer paid?Time to rest during the day
The carer decides when and how their own break fits around your relative, not the family.
The carer's own call
How many hours does a live-in carer work?A break from the placement itself
Usually a rotation with a second carer, or family covering some days, rather than daily leave.
Agreed with the carer
Can a live-in carer work part-time?Travel, only if you agree it first
Getting to the placement and driving your relative both sit outside the day rate unless you agree them in writing, usually around 55p a mile for driving.
Set out in the contract
Do live-in carers get paid for travel?If you employ a carer yourself, rather than working with a self-employed carer through PrimeCarers, the position changes: you take on an employer's duties too, including paying at least the National Minimum Wage for every hour they are awake and working, and statutory paid holiday. How much is a live-in carer paid? sets a traditional agency, an independent hire and PrimeCarers side by side, including how the pay differs between the three.
Duties and boundaries
What a carer is not expected to do
A live-in carer takes on personal care and much of the everyday running of a home, and the PrimeCarers contract is clear that the carer decides how that work gets done, not the family. That autonomy cuts both ways: a carer can decline a task, and a family can expect the ones they have agreed to be carried out well.
Part of the role
- Personal care and the tasks you and the carer agreed in the plan before they moved in
- The everyday running of the home they're living in: washing up, a load of laundry, a made bed
- Following your relative's routines and preferences as guidance for how the day runs
- Telling you if something in the routine feels unsafe, or beyond what they're trained for
Needs its own conversation
- Nursing tasks or medical procedures a carer hasn't been trained and isn't confident to carry out
- A whole-house clean, the garden or a specialist job, rather than a cleaner or a handyman
- Being directed on exactly how to do a task rather than what needs doing by the end of it
- Working through the rest they've built into their day without it being discussed first
The PrimeCarers contract puts this in writing: a carer "retains full autonomy over how the services are performed" and is not supervised or directed by the client on the detail of how they carry it out. If a carer is not confident doing something safely, the contract expects them to say so rather than carry on, and expects the family to make other arrangements rather than insist. Do live-in carers do housework? sets out exactly where the everyday tasks stop and a separate job starts, and the full wording sits in the PrimeCarers contract itself.
Breaks and time off
Why the carer decides how their own rest works
Because a live-in carer is self-employed, the PrimeCarers contract leaves the timing and structure of their rest to them, not to the family, though in practice most placements settle into a similar pattern worth planning around.
Worth agreeing before day one
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During the day
Away from the placement
Is live-in care seven days a week? goes through how a placement carries on every day once it starts and how a carer's own rest fits around that, and can a live-in carer work part-time? covers the three patterns families use to share a placement between more than one carer, which is how most families give a carer proper time away.
Before day one
How to agree it all before the carer moves in
None of this needs to be complicated, but it goes more smoothly written down than assumed. Most of it is a conversation you have with the carer you choose, not a form to fill in.
- 1
Write down what the role involves
TodayNote the personal care tasks, whether nights need covering, and how you expect the room and food to work. This becomes the plan the carer works from. - 2
Put pay, food and breaks in writing
Before you agree a placementA message confirming the day rate, the food arrangement and roughly how the daily rest will work is enough. PrimeCarers doesn't set any of this for you. - 3
Search and interview carers near you
FreeEvery carer has completed an online interview, and their identity, right to work and enhanced DBS are checked before they appear. They are also insured while they work. - 4
Ask how they see the role
Before you commitA carer who is clear about their own boundaries early is usually the easier one to work alongside once they have moved in. - 5
Book the first placement, then revisit it
Week oneStart with the plan you've agreed, and go back over it after a week or two, once you can both see how the routine is working.
Questions
Questions families ask about what carers are entitled to
Not in the way an employee is. Because carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed, the Working Time Regulations that guarantee an employee weekly rest don't apply to them in the same way, and the PrimeCarers contract leaves the structure of their rest to the carer. In practice, most families arrange a proper break from the placement itself by rotating a second carer or having family cover some days, rather than the carer taking a day off within the week. Can a live-in carer work part-time? covers how that usually works.
Only if you employ them directly. A carer working through PrimeCarers is self-employed and sets their own day rate, so the minimum wage does not apply to that arrangement the way it would to an employee's wage. If you employ a carer yourself, they are covered by the minimum wage, including an exemption for live-in domestic workers treated as one of the family, which Parliament removed from 1 April 2024. How much is a live-in carer paid? sets the two arrangements side by side.
Yes, and the PrimeCarers contract is explicit about it: a carer decides how the services are performed and is not required to take on work they feel unqualified or unsafe to carry out. If that happens, the contract expects the carer to say so and the family to make alternative arrangements rather than insist.
Seven days, once they have worked 168 hours, roughly a week, in the placement. Before that point, either side can end the arrangement on 48 hours' notice. Leaving without the required notice can mean the carer is not paid for visits that were booked but not worked. The full terms are in the PrimeCarers contract.
Yes. Bank holidays are charged at 1.5x the carer's normal rate and Christmas Day at 2x, set out in the PrimeCarers contract. The carer is still there on those days; it is the rate that changes, not whether cover continues. Is live-in care seven days a week? covers what stays covered every day of a placement.
No. Some older rules let certain live-in domestic workers be paid less than the minimum wage because their room and food were provided instead of part of a wage. That exemption ended in April 2024, and it never applied to carers on PrimeCarers anyway, since they are self-employed and set their own rate. The room and food are provided on top of that rate, not taken out of it. Do live-in carers buy their own food? covers how families usually arrange it.