The short answer
- You pay the invoice in full, with nothing deductedgov.uk says somebody who is self-employed is responsible for paying their own National Insurance and tax. The total on the invoice is the figure that leaves your account.
- There is no PAYE and no payrollRegistering for PAYE is something an employer does before the first payday. If the carer is self-employed there is no employer, so there is nothing to register and nothing to file.
- The invoice should match the week that happenedIt should show the dates, the hours, the rate, anything charged at a bank holiday rate, and any travel you agreed in writing beforehand.
- Keep the invoices, even though you do not file them anywhereThey show how the arrangement worked if the carer’s status is ever questioned, or if a council direct payment is paying for the care.
PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not a care agency, and holds no CQC registration. Carers are self-employed, so the payment terms sit in the contract between your family and the carer. Figures here are 2026/27, checked on 14 September 2026.
Three ways to pay
Three ways the money reaches a carer
It helps to know which of these you are in, because the paperwork is different in each one. The first two columns are the same arrangement with the money moving differently, and the third is a different arrangement altogether.
| A self-employed carer on PrimeCarers | A self-employed carer you found yourself | A carer you employ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who raises the bill | Compiled from the visits you and the carer entered | The carer writes and sends you an invoice | Nobody. You run a payroll and give the carer a payslip |
| How the money moves | Through PrimeCarers rather than straight to the carer | However the two of you agreed, usually a bank transfer | Wages into their account on the payday you set |
| Taken off before the carer is paid | Nothing | Nothing | Income tax and National Insurance, which you send to HMRC |
| What you register for | Nothing | Nothing | PAYE with HMRC, before the first payday |
| What sits on top of the rate | Bank holiday and Christmas Day rates, and anything agreed in writing | Whatever the two of you agreed | Employer’s National Insurance, pension contributions, holiday pay and employer’s liability insurance |
Who raises the bill
- A self-employed carer on PrimeCarers
- Compiled from the visits you and the carer entered
- A self-employed carer you found yourself
- The carer writes and sends you an invoice
- A carer you employ
- Nobody. You run a payroll and give the carer a payslip
How the money moves
- A self-employed carer on PrimeCarers
- Through PrimeCarers rather than straight to the carer
- A self-employed carer you found yourself
- However the two of you agreed, usually a bank transfer
- A carer you employ
- Wages into their account on the payday you set
Taken off before the carer is paid
- A self-employed carer on PrimeCarers
- Nothing
- A self-employed carer you found yourself
- Nothing
- A carer you employ
- Income tax and National Insurance, which you send to HMRC
What you register for
- A self-employed carer on PrimeCarers
- Nothing
- A self-employed carer you found yourself
- Nothing
- A carer you employ
- PAYE with HMRC, before the first payday
What sits on top of the rate
- A self-employed carer on PrimeCarers
- Bank holiday and Christmas Day rates, and anything agreed in writing
- A self-employed carer you found yourself
- Whatever the two of you agreed
- A carer you employ
- Employer’s National Insurance, pension contributions, holiday pay and employer’s liability insurance
Employer duties from gov.uk, checked 14 September 2026.
Which column you are in is decided by how the work happens rather than by what anybody calls it. If you would rather take somebody on as an employee, employing a private carer lists the duties and what they cost, and the private carers guide is the place to start if all of this is new.
No payroll to run
Why there is no PAYE, and what you are not paying
Paying a carer can feel as though it ought to involve something official. Four of the things an employer has to do are absent here, and it is worth knowing why, rather than wondering whether you have missed a step.
Income tax and National Insurance
The carer’s, not yours
PAYE registration
Nothing to register
Paid holiday and sick pay
Not payable
Pension contributions and employer’s liability insurance
Not yours to arrange
Cover is the one of those four worth sorting out early. What happens when your carer is ill or on holiday covers how families arrange it, and private carer insurance explains which policy does what.
The invoice
What belongs on a carer's invoice
An invoice from a self-employed carer is a short document, and every line on it is either a rule from the contract or something the two of you agreed. Here is one week, with each line explained underneath.
Invoice 0412
Week ending Sunday 6 September 2026
From
A carer’s full name
An address where legal documents can be sent
A phone number and an email address
To
The person paying the invoice
The address where the care was given
Morning visits, Tuesday 1 to Friday 4 September
4 visits of 1 hour at £20 an hour
£80.00
Morning visit, Monday 31 August
1 hour at one and a half times the rate, bank holiday
£30.00
Morning visit, Saturday 5 September
Cancelled by the client the evening before, payable in full
£20.00
Mileage to the pharmacy and back, agreed in writing
12 miles at 55p a mile
£6.60
Total due
£136.60
Deductions
None. Income tax and National Insurance are the carer’s own, paid through Self Assessment.
Payment
Due within 7 days. A bank account in the carer’s name, or through PrimeCarers.
The carer’s name, and an address
gov.uk asks a sole trader to put their own name on an invoice, along with any business name they use and an address where legal documents can be sent to them. A carer who works under their own name only needs the name.
A number, and the week it covers
A unique number and the dates the invoice covers are what make two invoices tellable apart a year later. Weekly invoices on PrimeCarers are numbered and dated for you.
Each visit, with the hours and the rate
Dates, the length of each visit and the hourly rate, so you can hold the invoice next to the week that happened and check it. A total for the week with no working behind it is the thing to ask about.
Bank holidays at a higher rate
The contract between a client and a carer sets bank holidays at one and a half times the carer’s normal rate, and Christmas Day at twice that rate. Monday 31 August 2026 was the summer bank holiday in England and Wales.
A visit you cancelled
A visit the client cancels is payable in full, apart from unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to. It appears on the invoice like any other visit.
Travel, only where you agreed it beforehand
Travel is not chargeable unless the two of you expressly agreed it in advance, and that agreement has to name the rate and the circumstances and be written down. The HMRC approved mileage rate for a car is 55p a mile from 6 April 2026, which gives you a figure to agree against.
No tax is taken off
There is no line for income tax, National Insurance or a pension, because a self-employed carer sorts out their own. The total is what leaves your account.
When it has to be paid
A weekly invoice raised through PrimeCarers is payable within 7 days, and a monthly one within 30 days, after which statutory interest applies. A carer invoicing you directly sets their own terms, so read them.
Two things about invoices are worth knowing in advance. The first is that there is no legal duty on a carer to send one: gov.uk says you need to give a customer an invoice by law if both you and the customer are registered for VAT, and a family paying for care at home is not. Ask for one anyway, every week, because it is the only document that says what was worked. The second is that there will be no VAT line, because registration is required once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in twelve months, which a single carer working ordinary hours will not reach.
Check the invoice against the week while you can still remember it. The contract makes both of you responsible for making sure the bookings are right before an invoice is issued, and if you disagree about a charge, it says the two of you resolve it and correct the booking. PrimeCarers does not produce, validate or verify what an invoice says. Handling problems with a carer covers what to do when a conversation has not settled something.
On top of the rate
What can be charged on top of the hourly rate
The hourly rate covers almost everything. A small number of items can sit on top of it, and the contract is specific about which ones and on what conditions. Anything not in this list is not chargeable unless you agreed it separately, in writing.
Where a charge above the hourly rate can come from
0 of 7 ticked
Higher rates on certain days
Only where you agreed it in advance, in writing
Payable even though the visit did not happen
Notice periods covers ending an arrangement and what is still payable while the notice runs. These terms come from the client and carer contract, which is on the site in full.
What to keep
What to keep, and why you are keeping it
The record-keeping rules on gov.uk are written for people running a business, and a family paying for a parent's care is not doing that. You are not filing anything about what you paid. There are still situations in which somebody asks to see it, and each is easier if the paperwork was kept as it arrived.
- 1
Keep every invoice
As they arrivePut them in a folder on a shelf or a folder on a computer, as long as it is one place and not four. Invoices raised through PrimeCarers stay in your account. A carer invoicing you directly should send one every week or every month, and it is fair to ask for a replacement copy. - 2
Pay in a way that leaves a record
Every timeA bank transfer, or payment through the platform, shows the date and the amount without anybody having to remember. Cash is against no rule, and it leaves nothing to point at afterwards. If cash suits your relative, ask the carer for a dated receipt each time. - 3
Keep the written agreement alongside them
Once, at the startWrite down the rate, what the carer was asked to do, what happens when they cannot come, and who provides what. If you ran HMRC’s status tool before you started, save the answer with it. - 4
Keep them for as long as somebody might ask
Six years is a safe defaultNothing fixes this for a family, so the floor comes from who could ask. HMRC can assess tax up to 4 years after the end of a tax period, and 6 years where it decides a mistake was careless. A council paying through a direct payment sets its own period.
If the council is paying for any part of the care through a direct payment, the invoices matter more, because it will want to see how the money was spent and will ask for evidence at a review. What it asks for varies between councils, so ask yours early. Local authority funding explains how to ask for an assessment and what a direct payment is.
Through PrimeCarers
How paying through PrimeCarers works
The arrangement is the same as paying a self-employed carer you found yourself. What changes is that the invoice is put together from the bookings rather than written out by the carer, and the payment runs through the platform.
- Before the week starts
You and the carer agree the visits
The days, the times, the length of each visit and the rate are agreed between the two of you and recorded on the platform. Those details form part of the agreement between you, so check them rather than skim them.
- During the week
What was worked goes on the record
That includes a visit that changed, a morning that ran long and a call that was cancelled. Both of you are responsible for making sure the record is right, because it is the only thing the invoice is built from.
- At the end of the week
The invoice is compiled from the bookings
PrimeCarers does not write, check or verify the content of an invoice. It puts together what the two of you entered, which is why the week is best checked while it is still fresh.
- Within 7 days
Payment is due, and it goes through the platform
A weekly invoice is payable within 7 days and a monthly one within 30 days, after which statutory interest applies. Payment goes through PrimeCarers rather than straight to the carer, and every invoice stays in your account afterwards.
The rate you see on a carer's profile already has our fee in it, so the hourly figure on the profile is the hourly figure on the invoice. When you are ready to look, you can search for carers near you and compare their rates without paying anything, and what carers charge has the current rates by care type.
PrimeCarers is not a party to the agreement between you and the carer. It introduces you to a self-employed carer and compiles the invoices administratively. It does not supervise or direct the care. The checks completed before a profile appears are an identity check, a right to work check, an enhanced DBS check kept current on the Update Service, and an online interview, and what each of those checks covers sets out what they do not reach. The client terms of service cover the payment side in full.
Questions
Questions families ask about paying a carer
No. You pay the invoice in full. gov.uk says somebody who is self-employed is responsible for paying their own National Insurance and tax, and a carer does that through Self Assessment.
Not for a self-employed carer. Registering for PAYE is what an employer does, before the first payday. If you employ a carer directly instead, PAYE registration, employer’s National Insurance, a workplace pension and employer’s liability insurance all follow. Employing a private carer sets out the full list.
The carer’s name, an address for legal documents, an invoice number and the period it covers, then each visit with its date, its length and the hourly rate. Anything at a bank holiday rate should say so, and any travel or expense should be one you agreed in advance in writing. There should be no line for tax, and no VAT unless the carer is registered, which requires taxable turnover above £90,000.
No. Paid holiday and statutory sick pay belong to workers and employees, and a self-employed carer sets their rate knowing the weeks they do not work are unpaid. What happens when a carer is ill or away is for the two of you to agree at the start.
There is no rule against it, and it leaves no record of what was paid or when. A bank transfer, or payment through a platform, creates that record. If cash suits your relative better, ask the carer for a dated receipt each time and keep it with the invoice. Work arranged through PrimeCarers has to be paid through PrimeCarers rather than directly to the carer.
Yes, in full, under the contract between a client and a carer. The exceptions are unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to. Notice on an hourly arrangement is 48 hours either way, and 7 days for live-in care once the carer has worked 168 hours. PrimeCarers charges nothing itself to cancel and does not set these terms. Notice periods covers ending an arrangement.
Six years is a safe default. Nothing in the rules fixes a period for a family, because the record-keeping duties on gov.uk apply to people running a business. The practical floor comes from who might ask: HMRC can assess tax up to 4 years after the end of a tax period and 6 years where it decides a mistake was careless, and a council funding the care sets its own period.