On-the-road carers lose out on thousands - campaign

Alicia Walsh says caring for others is "a very difficult job"

Half a million care workers who deliver in-home support are being underpaid by thousands of pounds a year because many do not get paid for their travel, a campaign group has said.

Some companies only paid staff when they delivered care but not when travelling between people's homes, according to a survey carried out by Fairer Carer Pay, which advocates for better pay conditions for home care workers.

Alicia Walsh, 22, a carer from Rotherham, said when she was with her previous employer, she "could be out the house for 14 hours, but only paid for eight".

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Everyone deserves to be paid fairly for every hour they work".

In its survey, Fairer Carer Pay also found that 71.8% of home care workers who responded were paid below the minimum wage once unpaid travel time was included, with an average shortfall of £2.51 per hour.

While some firms paid at least 25p a mile in mileage allowance, over 500,000 were still affected by the reduced hourly wage due to unpaid travel time and that would lead to them being illegally underpaid, it said.

Alicia's work includes administering medicine and helping clients get washed

Ms Walsh said following conversations with her friends, who were also carers, she had spoken to her then employer after realising she was being underpaid.

She said not being paid for travelling between the addresses of those under her care led her to "feel like you're not getting respected in the way you should be".

"Care is a very difficult job," she said.

"Ultimately you're responsible for that person's life when you're in that care call."

Ms Walsh said she had since moved to another company which did pay carers for travelling between jobs, adding that she now felt "valued".

Meanwhile, Stephen Sanders, from Harrogate, said he had previously worked for a company which advertised its wage at about £14 per hour, well above the £12.21 minimum rate for employees over 21 years old.

However, he said he found himself waiting in his car between scheduled jobs and not being paid during that time, or he was making 40-mile unpaid round-trips between clients' homes.

"Initially, I felt like I was tricked," he told BBC Radio York.

"Care's busy on a morning, busy on an evening, and you might have a little bit during the day.

"If you need to earn full time, 40 hours pay, you're out of the house well over 60 hours."

Dan Archer runs a care business which does pay staff for their travel time

Dan Archer, from the National Association of Care and Support Workers, which is behind the Fairer Carer Pay campaign, said the number of people being paid like this was "frighteningly common".

Mr Archer, who is also CEO and founder of home care specialists Visiting Angels UK, called for better enforcement of companies which were underpaying staff.

"I'm incredibly frustrated by it. It makes me angry," he said.

"I know the work care workers do and the difference it makes to people's lives.

"I think it's really disgraceful we are not, as a society, paying more attention to hundreds of thousands of people who are basically being exploited."

In a statement, the spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "Everyone deserves to be paid fairly for every hour they work.

"[We have] launched the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to boost recruitment and retention, delivered the biggest uplift to the Carer's Allowance threshold since the 1970s and providing a funding boost of more than £4bn."

The agreement was backed by £500m of funding, the government spokesperson added.

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