Becoming a Self Employed Personal Assistant

danz0l

Hi there.

Having worked in care for over 15 years, with a vast experience of many aspects of care providing, i'm looking to become a self employed personal assistant. I'm currently employed 37.5 hours a week and will continue doing this until i hopefully build up a client group of my own, then i'll be fully self employed.

I am aware that i will need to register as self employed with HMRC and provide liability insurance. What i'm not aware of is how much is viable for me to charge to provide the level of service, as well as make it worth my own while.

I know agencies generally pay anywhere between £8.50 to £10.00 an hour for employing personal assistants but they would not be doing so unless there is substantial profit in it for them.

I thought that maybe £15 an hour would be acceptable by most people as I would have to pay for my own advertising costs, Accountant, liability insurance etc but i'm really not sure what people get from the government as direct payments and whether i'm actually pricing myself out of the market.

Don't get me wrong on this, i do care, a great deal, that the service I could provide is much needed and aim to go above and beyond for any of my clients (has always been my approach in care). But again i need to be realistic in my expectations financially as I have a family to support.

So any advice is much sort after an appreciated. I'd love to hear from anyone who has active involvement in the Direct Payment scheme, both as a provider and a customer and views on whether they feel i'm competitive etc.

Any help and advice would be fantastic.

Galaxy1987

You need to look around at what providers charge for the same service, as you could outprice yourself. Most people would rather buy into a provider than a self employed person if they had the choice because of the cost of payrole, training, sickness etc.

I have seen people being given direct payments at £10.40 per hour and directly employee someone as a PA rather than self employed person.

You also need to think about who will cover you when you are sick, on holiday or on training.

J

danz0l

Yes i understand and thank you for your reply. Its why i need to charge around £15 to cover eventualities like sickness, holidays etc.

I can't seem to find what providers charge as they would want to come and assess then issue a price and obviously are not going to tell me over the telephone what they charge (and they never state on their websites).

As regards payroll, training etc, again it would be my responsibility to pay for this. All the needed person would do would be tell me amount of hours and i'd invoice them. I'm responsible for everything else. Just like an agency would do.

Its a minefield and i'm sure there are people doing it and its a needed service. Its just a hard start up.

Galaxy1987

Tbh most people would use there direct payments to employ people as it is easier and they are in more control over the times of their support. Also the amount the are given per hour is to cover all additional costs I.e. holidays, sickness etc. They can pay someone minimum wage and pay £400pa to a company for payrole and insurance and have access to free training.

As I said before people who can afford to pay the amount you are thinking will go with a provider as its less hassle.

I have had experience of this and the maximum I have ever seen someone bein alocated is 12.80 ph and this was due to the complexity of there needs.

danz0l

Thanks Jay, its food for thought. It just annoys me that agencies gain a foot hold and make a great deal of money but don't pass that down to those that are actually doing the work. If an agency is paying me £8.50 you can bet they charge the client a great deal more so my thought was to cut out the middle man and go to the source.

Kayalana99

danz0l wrote: »

Thanks Jay, its food for thought. It just annoys me that agencies gain a foot hold and make a great deal of money but don't pass that down to those that are actually doing the work. If an agency is paying me £8.50 you can bet they charge the client a great deal more so my thought was to cut out the middle man and go to the source.

Ring up a couple of agencies, and say your looking for a care assistant for your mother or something and are ringing round for prices.

Bit research for you, good luck I wish you all best :-)

dawyldthing

I think a friends cost 13 quid an hour to the agency. But then holiday pay, sick pay, payroll, employers national insurance, insurance all has to come out of it so they won't be left with much in the end

Caroline_a

My only thoughts are that you need to be careful what you call yourself - when I first read your title I thought you meant Personal Assistant, as in PA, ie, senior secretary/admin person.

Maybe Person Care Assistant would clarify things - you don't want to be asked to do clever things with an Excel spreadsheet unless it's your thing!