Loans for Carers

Working in the professional care field is hard work, but for lots of people it’s perfect. For people who are working to support their families, for example, this job can be great when it comes to balancing time between family life and work. Other people just love the social nature of the job and the fact that they’re helping people through their work.

While the job can be rewarding, for some professional carers it can be difficult to manage money. In fact, some carers have to rely on quick payday loans on certain occasions. In this article, we’ve taken a look at what it’s like being a professional carer in the UK, what the pay’s like and why carers sometimes need payday loans.

Becoming a carer in the UK

You don’t have to have any formal qualifications to become a carer in the UK. It’s possible to apply directly for a job and then receive on the job training. While this is the case, there are qualifications and types of training that are available. These include college courses and apprenticeships that provide care workers with skills that help them in their careers. In many cases, employers will prefer care work applicants who have a qualification or have received training.

Some qualifications it’s possible to get are a Level 1 Certificate in Health and Social Care, a Level 2 Diploma in Care or a T-Level in Health.

Before being employed as a professional carer, workers have to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service check. As well as this, certain professional training certificates are required. Some of these are required for all carers, such as health and safety awareness training and fire safety training. Others, such as food safety and hygiene training and infection, prevention and control training are only required for some care workers.

How many care workers are there in the UK?

The care industry is estimated to employ 1.52 million people in the UK.

A large proportion of the workforce is split between providing domiciliary care (care in the home) and residential care (care in care homes). One trend in recent years has been a significant rise in the number of people working in domiciliary care. This isn’t matched in the residential care sector. According to Skills for Care, between 2012/2013 and 2020/2021, the number of domiciliary care workers increased by 31% from 450,000 to 590,000. Figures for the residential care sector are much more stable, despite there being an overall increase in the number of UK care workers.

It does, after all, make financial sense to have more carers working in people’s homes. Home care visits are paid at an hourly rate with the total cost depending on the number of hours of care needed. Rates vary from care agency to care agency, but the total cost is significantly less than for residential care. Normal prices quoted are around £20 to £35 per hour. The price of residential care is much higher, with the average week’s residential care costing over £900. Most people also prefer to receive care at home.

Care workers and zero hours contracts

Employers in the care industry often employ staff under zero hours contracts, and this is a controversial aspect of work in the care sector. Zero hours contracts are often criticised because they provide workers with no income security, and they often end up losing out financially as a result of their contracts. Employers like zero hours contracts because they provide them with a flexible workforce without the cost of agency fees.

According to Skills for Care, amongst social care staff as a whole, in 2022, 24% of workers were employed on zero hours contracts. Carers also made up the biggest proportion within this figure, with 35% of care workers being employed on zero hours contracts. This compares to 3% of people in the wider population.

Although the professional carer is entitled to annual leave, rest breaks and the National Minimum Wage under a zero hours contract, they do not have the same rights as other employees when it comes to some things. Their rights to a statutory minimum notice period, sick pay and maternity pay is not as secure, for example. They may also find they have other problems as well.

Why do carers need payday loans?

Professional care workers are often unskilled workers, people who work irregular hours or sometimes women who have returned to work after having children. On an average salary of around £25,000 per year, people often find it hard to manage their financial lives. Having a low income at times when working hours are unexpectedly reduced can be particularly difficult to deal with. Particularly if a big bill comes in right when a person’s earnings have dropped.

Many care workers also have financial commitments that they have to keep up with. Having a mortgage, for example, or other regular expenses to pay can swallow up a lot of money and push people to the brink when money becomes tight. Just paying rent could swallow up a large amount of a carer’s monthly income. People with children also have to budget for childcare, and organising this on a zero-hours contract can be difficult.

Travel expenses may also hit care workers hard under certain circumstances. The cost of commuting by public transport or car continues to increase. Those who need to use their car to visit different care clients over the course of a working day also have expenses related to this.

Payday loans from Cashfloat

Sometimes, people find that unexpected bills come in at a time when they just can’t afford to pay them. Maybe their car breaks down, and they can’t wait until payday to get it fixed. Or their boiler breaks, and they need a bit of extra money to fund the repairs. When a financial emergency like this strikes, often the only option a person has is to take out a payday loan.

Payday loans might be expensive, but they’re perfect for a short term financial emergency. At Cashfloat, we offer short term loans of £300 to £1,500, we get the funds to people’s bank accounts on the same day, and we’ve got high approval rates. We even give loans to people with bad credit scores. You can apply with Cashfloat today and get fast, easy funding for a financial emergency.

Caution! Remember that payday loans are expensive and should only be used in an emergency. You should never use a payday loan to fund a non-essential expense, and you should also never use one to provide a temporary solution to a long term money problem.

For help with money problems, go to moneyhelper.org.uk.

The future of professional care work in the UK

The number of people over 65 in the UK is steadily increasing. According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of over 65s in the UK increased from 9.2 million in 2011 to over 11 million in 2021. That’s an increase of around 20%. This age category now makes up 18.6% of the population.

Having an ageing population will mean that many more professional care workers will be needed in the future to assist with care for the elderly as well as other vulnerable members of society. As such, it looks like there’s a good amount of job security for care workers in the UK. However, although the demand for carers is there, it’s not clear whether their work will be rewarded with better pay and working conditions in the future.

Care workers in the UK deserve better pay and working conditions. Care workers work hard to look after some of the most vulnerable members of society. Meanwhile, pay is often low, and tough conditions (like zero hours contracts) make things even harder for care workers.