sole trader?

blueye

hi i work in home care for an agency, id like to go it alone so i benefit from better pay and clients also benefit by paying less, up to half the amount they pay my current employer.
the only problem is after reading into it it seems it is impossible to be a self employed carer as tax office will class your client as an employer because i would need to be in their homes at certain times, would use their equipment and be paid by the hr.
is there anyway around this as i dont see many elderly people wanting the hassle of becoming an employer!

paddyrg

That's why agencies exist, so you are an employee of them, and they contract a service to the client. It is a part of what they are paying the agency for (so they are not employers, as you say). And this is one of the reasons the agency charge more than they pay you (also in that mix are NI, tax, holiday pay provision, sick pay provision, maternity cover, invoicing, billing, payroll, bad debts, office staff, insurances, profit, etc).

InsideInsurance

You can potentially either use an umbrella company - you are therefore an employee of theirs and so avoid any HMRC issues but you dont get the same level of benefit as a Ltd.

Alternatively you could create a Ltd but that doesnt remove all the risk of HMRC saying that your a disguised employee.

That said, I am a little confused as to who you are suggesting you contract with? It sounds like your talking about seeing elderly people in their own homes rather than working for an agency or for a care home? Would you have multiple clients? I would be surprised if you failed the HMRC test assuming that the above is correct and you do have multiple concurrent clients.

Premier_2

blueye wrote: »

hi i work in home care for an agency, id like to go it alone so i benefit from better pay and clients also benefit by paying less, up to half the amount they pay my current employer.
the only problem is after reading into it it seems it is impossible to be a self employed carer as tax office will class your client as an employer because i would need to be in their homes at certain times, would use their equipment and be paid by the hr.
is there anyway around this as i dont see many elderly people wanting the hassle of becoming an employer!

Supplying the service at certain times, and using their own equipment can probably be talked around, but being paid by the hour is often (not not always) the pointer to being employed.

Running a business is all about being responsible for the risk involved in what you do. If you could be paid per visit rather than by the hour, you would be more likely to prove self employment.
i.e. if you currently get £10 for 90 minutes, but could now get your customer to invoice you for 'required care daily visit' at £10 then if you can do that in 30 minutes you're laughing, but if the individual has a bad day and needs you there 3 hours, you will not being well ... but that's the risk of business.

Being able to provide a substitute carer (even if you never do) would also be benficial to proving self employed status

Have you looked into how much insurance would cost you? I don't know, but I would expect it wouldn't be cheap for such a business as personal care provider.

blueye

hi thanks for the advice,
i would have different clients, but i read that they would just class them all as individual employers!
im sure i read that social would still have to provide care if for some reason i could not when client takes up direct payments.
insurance is starting at around £90 for a standard policy.
im still just in the thinking about it stage but every day i have to work for the shambolic care agency it makes me more determined

orangeslimes

1. Have you talked to the care homes and asked if they would take you on as an employee direct without the agency?

2. Set up your own small agency?

Savvy_Sue

orangeslimes wrote: »

2. Set up your own small agency?

This is not a step to be taken lightly: there are multiple sets of regulations to be aware of - general 'running a small biz'; employment agencies; working with vulnerable people ...

Plus it's a cut-throat world - care staff are badly treated because the margins are so low, and also because if you don't want the work there's plenty more who do. And you have to hit the ground running and pick up speed - if you can't send carers when required, other agencies are available!

blueye

this is why i think self employment in domiciliary care would be better, no regs really, which is wrong but hay i dont make the rules!
i would of course do things by the book when your self employed you dont even have to record anything! shocking.
but i would also if poss like to start an agency that has self employed cares, i would sort and bill for packages and pay the cares their fee (and take my own fee for putting client and carer together) how would this work with the tax man! i know of agencies that do this already and after speaking with my fellow carers i have a lot that would be interested.
for 15 min calls private clients are paying £8.36 (we get £1.65 )
we could do this for £4.50 saving the client money and getting a better pay ourselves even when i cost in 5 weeks holiday and double time for bank holidays its so much cheaper for the clients £1000's cheaper!

Mistral001

blueye wrote: »

id like to go it alone so i benefit from better pay

This is an assumption you have made. It does not always follow that you make more money if you are self-employed.

If you plan to charge half of what your employer is charging then, expect to earn not more but a lot less than you are getting at the minute as there will be overheads and unpaid time involved with admin etc. You always have to aim your fees high when starting a business as you cannot easily put up your charges when established without risking loosing some if not all your clients