Home care rates for London - any ideas?

shrimpsters

Can anyone help? I'm thinking about arranging some homecare for a relative in North London. I can't get ANY agencies to tell me their rates without doing an assessment - and many of them charge for this (BNA charge £140!!). Before we start, I just wanted to establish whether this was something we could afford (as the relative won't qualify for any benefits).
I'm really after hourly rates for weekdays, weekends, nights, bank hols etc - does anyone know?
Thanks!

bobajob_1966

What kind of care are you thinking of - domestic work, basic healthcare, nursing?

shrimpsters

Hi there
Thinking 3 hours domestic help and maybe a couple a day to help with personal care for getting up and dressed (not nursing care - yet).

bobajob_1966

shrimpsters wrote: »

Hi there
Thinking 3 hours domestic help and maybe a couple a day to help with personal care for getting up and dressed (not nursing care - yet).

In that case do you need to use an agency? I don't know the rates for agencies in London, but the cut they take will be significant. Would you be able to recruit someone yourself?

shrimpsters

I know that's what I was thinking - reading between the lines, it looks as if care might cost upwards of £15 p h!!!!
Thanks anyway!

saving_pennies

No idea of care costs in London, but I pay almost £15 an hour from an agency and I imagine this could be higher in London. I would persist with calling some agencies as it seems strange that they will not give you their standard hourly rate - when I was looking I called a whole list of local agencies and got prices from most of them.

Employing a private carer is cheaper. I did this initially and paid £8 and hour, but then couldn't manage the paperwork and also had no cover when they were unwell. Some advice (sorry if you know this already):
- if you employ someone you do need to keep records of hours and pay, and you either have to do their tax and national insurance or get them to sign a disclaimer stating that you have no responsibility in paying their tax and they are fully responsible for declaring their earnings to the tax office (i.e. they are technically self employed).
- it is worth getting carer/personal assistant insurance to cover any damages, injuries, thief etc - http://www.fishinsurance.co.uk/carer-and-personal-assistant-insurance.php
- it is important to take up references and conduct a CRB check - your local volunteer bureau can help with this. Or, google and see if there is a independent living charity local to you as my local one has a worker who helps disabled people employ carers and they also help with contracts and crb's.

The advantage of going via an agency is that they have their own insurance and handle all the paperwork and tax etc. They also have other carers they can send if the usual carer is ill or on holiday. The disadvantage is they do take a big cut. I am sure my carers only get just over half of what I have to pay the agency.