Working for less than minimum wage (after expenses)

theoretica · 7 December 2012 at 7:14PM

When you call the office could you ask them to call you back so you only get the minimum call charge?

keyser666 · 7 December 2012 at 9:14PM

As SarEl says above very common practice in this field and above board albeit as bit slippery from my point of view.

I would suggest doing what others do and if you are sharing clients car share and also look on caring forums for ways to cut back and make the most of the time whilst providing the best care possible

TrickyWicky · 7 December 2012 at 11:30PM

tonyh66 wrote: »

I dunno what this means I am a walker, so I can't physically do more than 25 hours a week.

Pretty obvious really. The person walks. That means from one client to another. That takes time and a lot more of it than a car would.

If you have 6 clients that live an hour apart the op will get paid for 6 hours. Thats 6 unpaid hours walking between them. That means the op is physically limited to the amount of hours they can earn money in per week including sleep.

There are 168 hours in a week. Take away 63 for sleep (allowing 9 hours per day) leaves 105. Op has stated they're doing around 16 hours a day - so over 5 days thats 80 hours leaving just 25 hours left per week. I don't think it's fair to expect the op to work those too just to earn a survival.

@Ynayesta sorry but you need to get a better job.

flyinggiraffe_2 · 8 December 2012 at 12:15AM

Any way of getting a little moped to whizz round town on?

If you have a lot of clients who live in the same block of flats/area, then to be more efficient it would make sense to see them one after the other so the travelling time is cut down. Do you know if your employer arranges the visits like this or do you find you are going back and forth across town constantly?

keyser666 · 8 December 2012 at 1:21AM

flyinggiraffe wrote: »

Any way of getting a little moped to whizz round town on?

If you have a lot of clients who live in the same block of flats/area, then to be more efficient it would make sense to see them one after the other so the travelling time is cut down. Do you know if your employer arranges the visits like this or do you find you are going back and forth across town constantly?

The employer tends to arrange the rota and which clients on different runs. It is down to the person requesting these services that request what hours they would like to be visited and how often, whether fo just once a day or for a breakfast, lunch and evening run. So it would be pretty difficult to get a certain run for the OP together and these companies are not all that accommodating.

As said above there are some forums that can assist with ways and means to minimise outlay and maximise income. An ex girlfriend of mine used to work in this sector so pretty au fait with it

Dont forget to claim tax for cleaning your uniform too !

Ynayesta · 8 December 2012 at 3:13PM

I really wanted to get a moped yes, mostly because the walking is exhausting me, but I wouldn't be able to run one on my wages and I don't think it'd be worth getting a loan/finance for this job.

Fingers crossed for another one to come along quickly XD.

yep it's the care co-ordinator's responsibility to allocate carers to clients at the right hours that are also the easiest for the carer to do. Unfortunately when all the clients want their calls at certain times, and the office fails to give me adequate walking time/is generally unorganised (as is the case with a lot of domiciliary care companies) I can only move my rota around so much, sometimes the calls are in a nice orderly route and sometimes it is back and forth across town.

They called me on my day off yesterday - I was out and left my mobile at home, I have an answer message but I'm not going to use my phone credit unless it's a complete emergency now because I wont get paid until the end of the month and there's £3 credit on it. I don't think I can be disciplined for not using my phone for work. I'm going to try and keep it to emails as much as I can.

Thanks again everyone for being so helpful. I'll look into some care forums.

Working for less than minimum wage (after expenses)

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