Buying equipment to use as part of your job

Hootie19

Sorry, that's a poor title!

My daughter works for an agency, as a Family Care Worker. This involves her, amongst other things, ferrying special needs children to and from various locations in town.

She already has to pay for business insurance, which is costing her a small fortune. I asked her the other day about car seats etc and she said that the agency will not provide any equipment, nor will they reimburse her for any equipment she buys herself. So far, the parents of the SN children have provided car seats themselves, but she's not convinced that they are always suitable for use in her car.

She is an employee of the agency, and not self employed, so does it sound right that she has to provide this somewhat expensive equipment out of her already meagre wages. The job was "sold" to her as full time, but it has turned out to be anything but.

She has about four hours work a day, is spending a bomb on petrol and mileage is not paid until she has done more than 15 miles a day, and given the small number of calls they have allocated her, it's a very rare day that she accumulates this number of miles.

She really cannot afford to spend anything on buying this kind of equipment. Where would she stand legally? I'm assuming she would be held personally responsible if anything happened while a child was travelling in her car, and the seat was not suitable.

balbs

hootie19

Some questions first... you say that your daughter was 'sold the job as 'full time' - do you mean in terms of the hours she thought she would be working or that she thought the job would be a job working for someone else (ie not the agency) - in addition was she given anything at all in writing or sign any agreement with this agency about the conditions of work she would be carrying out?

Hootie19

I mean when she went for the interview with the agency, she was under the impression that it was for a full time job - she knew it was working for the agency, and not for another employer.

yes, she has a written agreement with them. Unfortuanately, she has just moved back home after an acrimonious split with her boyfriend, and he's being a bit awkward about letting her go back to collect the rest of her belongings. This includes all her certificates, CRB, and employment papers etc. He says he's "out of town" for a few days, and she'll just have to wait until he gets back :mad:

Once she's been able to retrieve them, I'll be in a better position to answer your question.

balbs

Ok understand the complication - hope you can get the paperwork... the reassurance I can give at this point is that employment agencies cannot abdicate their responsibilities for health and safety matters - so if an employer would need to supply equipment on health and safety grounds then an agency has to make sure this happens as well - the only question is who pays, the agency or the organisation that the agency is supplying services to, or in some cases if the worker is genuinely working for the agency as a self-employed worker... this last case is rare but its why the paperwork is important.

As you say that she is being employed by the agency and is not self employed and that this is the case then the only question is whether the agency is contracting her to work for another business (a local authority for example?). If she is not self-employed then either the agency should be supplying the equipment or whoever they are dealing with should - and most definitely not the parents.

The agency should also have carried out an assessment of any health and safety issues with the job - typically I'm afraid that they will think that as an agency they can get away with not bothering with this, but they are sadly mistaken.

Savvy_Sue

Does she not have a key of her own? Go back with someone to support her to pick the paperwork up?

Raksha

Why is it important that she gets her CRB certificate? Have this company allowed her to work unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults without applying for an enhanced CRB of their own?
This would ring alarm bells for me I'm afraid.

Anihilator

Hootie19 wrote: »

Sorry, that's a poor title!

My daughter works for an agency, as a Family Care Worker. This involves her, amongst other things, ferrying special needs children to and from various locations in town.

She already has to pay for business insurance, which is costing her a small fortune. I asked her the other day about car seats etc and she said that the agency will not provide any equipment, nor will they reimburse her for any equipment she buys herself. So far, the parents of the SN children have provided car seats themselves, but she's not convinced that they are always suitable for use in her car.

She is an employee of the agency, and not self employed, so does it sound right that she has to provide this somewhat expensive equipment out of her already meagre wages. The job was "sold" to her as full time, but it has turned out to be anything but.

She has about four hours work a day, is spending a bomb on petrol and mileage is not paid until she has done more than 15 miles a day, and given the small number of calls they have allocated her, it's a very rare day that she accumulates this number of miles.

She really cannot afford to spend anything on buying this kind of equipment. Where would she stand legally? I'm assuming she would be held personally responsible if anything happened while a child was travelling in her car, and the seat was not suitable.

1) Its not unusual for employers not to reimburse the extra cost of business insurance. I would be surprised if it really costing a small fortune either

2) The reason for this I assume is she is home based hence the company count 15 miles as an acceptable daily commute for an employee again very common

3) It would be for the carers to supply the seats etc. If your daughter doesnt feel the seats are suitable she should refuse to transport them. I would be surprised if the seats really are unsuitable.

As for the FT part she needs to look at her contract but unless it states rather than she thought/assumed she has no recourse.

If she isnt happy she should quit.

kingfisherblue

I have a child with special needs and although he is now able to use a standard car seat, for several years he had to use a specialist car seat. He has friends who still cannot use standard car seats, including at least one child who will be in a specialist restraint for the rest of his life.

In this type of instance, I think it is acceptable for the parents to supply the car seat - they are only lending it to your daughter, after all. These seats are very expensive and I feel that it would be unreasonable for any employer to have to provide them, especially as what is suitable for one disabled child may not be suitable for another child with different disabilities. She should, of course, be shown how to fit the seats into her car and should ask to be shown again if she feels unsure that she can fit them safely.

Just so people know, the seat I needed for my son was £250, plus £45 for a cover - and that was about six or seven years ago. The price was excluding VAT. I was able to buy it excluding VAT as it was for the sole use of a disabled person and it had been designed for that use.

With regard to other points in the OP's thread, adding business use to your car insurance is usually a minimal expense. Some insurance companies don't charge at all. Maybe you need to clarify with your daughter how much a 'small fortune' is, or discuss the possibility of her changing insurance companies.

Can she really be spending 'a bomb' on petrol if she is travelling less than fifteen miles a day? Or is it 'a bomb' in comparison to her earnings? I wouldn't know - I just know how much I spend on petrol a week. There is a link somewhere on this site about driving and keeping costs down.

Finally, unfortunately with agencies, they do not have to provide full time work. As it is children that she deals with, I would assume that they are in school most of the time, so it would be difficult to make up full time hours, except perhaps in the holidays. Has she been told that there is the potential for full time hours? That would make more sense to me. If it was definitely sold to her as full time, did she not consider that the children would have to attend school and that this would be likely to reduce the amount of time that she could work? I think I would have questioned this at interview.

paulwf

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Can she really be spending 'a bomb' on petrol if she is travelling less than fifteen miles a day? Or is it 'a bomb' in comparison to her earnings? I wouldn't know - I just know how much I spend on petrol a week. There is a link somewhere on this site about driving and keeping costs down.

The going rate for claiming business mileage as an expense is something like 40p a mile which accounts for wear and tear on the vehicle as well. Using that as a guide means driving nearly 15 miles a day is costing the employee nearly £6. If the employee is earning £6 p/h for 4 hours then as you have to take off tax first before paying for fuel and car upkeep the OP is effectively losing one third of their net wages!

My example is very much a worst case scenario, it depends on wages and tax rates, but it is worth thinking about...I have demonstrated to people I work with that by the time they pay for fuel and car parking it isn't worth coming in for 2 or 3 hour shifts that are sometimes offered.

DCFC79

If i was spending more on petrol than what i got a week then i woudl consider whether it was worth continuing with the job

kingfisherblue

paulwf wrote: »

The going rate for claiming business mileage as an expense is something like 40p a mile which accounts for wear and tear on the vehicle as well. Using that as a guide means driving nearly 15 miles a day is costing the employee nearly £6. If the employee is earning £6 p/h for 4 hours then as you have to take off tax first before paying for fuel and car upkeep the OP is effectively losing one third of their net wages!

My example is very much a worst case scenario, it depends on wages and tax rates, but it is worth thinking about...I have demonstrated to people I work with that by the time they pay for fuel and car parking it isn't worth coming in for 2 or 3 hour shifts that are sometimes offered.

That's fair enough, I wouldn't have a clue. Also, different people will have different ideas of what is a lot of petrol, but I can see that if it almost cancels out the wage, then it is unacceptable. Thanks for the explanation.