Bid to boost social carers' pay and ease chronic crisis clears first stage

02 May 2023 , 16:48

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Some carers are not paid for time spent travelling between appointments - even though they should be (Image: Getty Images)

An MP tonight launched a bid to change the law so all carers are paid for time spent travelling between appointments.

Labour backbencher Paula Barker aims to close a loophole which campaigners say means carers’ pay often dips below the legal minimum.

While existing legislation states "travel time and waiting time for the purposes of the job" should count as work, critics accuse many providers of failing to follow the law.

They say hundreds of thousands of care workers are only paid for time spent helping cook, clean and wash their clients.

Unveiling her National Minimum Wage Bill under Parliament’s Ten Minute Rule, Ms Barker told MPs: “My Bill does not seek to overhaul the law as it stands but rather places a greater emphasis on enforcement that would be to the benefit of all workers.”

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Bid to boost social carers' pay and ease chronic crisis clears first stage

Labour MP Paula Barker unveiled her Bill under the Commons Ten Minute Rule

A survey of home care workers revealed 63% are only paid for the time spent in people’s homes, Ms Barker told the Commons.

“Ultimately, this means that for too many, care workers’ hourly pay rates fall well short of the Government’s National Living Wage and take many under the threshold of the National Minimum Wage,” she said.

“In a sector that is deeply troubled with issues around recruitment and retention, my Bill would represent a genuine opportunity for the Government to clamp down on malpractice.”

Urging MPs to “make a real, tangible difference here today to all workers - not least those on the frontline caring for those who need it most”, Ms Barker described her planned law as “a small but significant change”.

Speaking earlier at the Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee, Care Minister Helen Whately insisted the Government wanted carers paid for travel time.

“I want to make sure that we are confident that domiciliary care workers are being properly funded for hours of work they are doing,” she told MPs.

Care Minister Helen Whately backed carers getting what they owed but admitted she did not have an answer (Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

“No provider should be paying somebody less than the National Living Wage.”

But she added: “On the one hand there are routes for workers that believe they are being paid less than the National Living Wage to try and get that addressed.

“On the other hand … in part it’s because of people being paid for the exact period of care they provide and sometimes being paid a rate for that which is intended to cover the travel time and waiting time but actually the travel time or wait time turned out to be longer.

“I think there’s a problem with that employment model, the way that works, so I don’t have an answer here and now for, ‘How do you fix that?’.”