A free tool byipcare
Your payslip tells one story. Your day tells another.
Walk through one ordinary shift. Answer one small question at a time, and watch your real hourly rate build on the live dashboard as you go.
Start the dayThe alarm goes off. First, the basics.
Kettle on, uniform on. Before the shift starts, tell us what it's meant to pay.
What's your hourly rate on paper?
And how many paid visit-hours in a typical week?
Work in a care home? This tool is built around homecare rounds: travel, gaps, mileage. and we'll tell you when the care-home version is ready.
First visit. This bit, you love, and this bit is paid.
Helping Mr K up, breakfast, meds, a proper chat. The clock is on and the money is real, that's the green on your day. Everything after this is time the rota doesn't pay for.
Driving to Mrs P. The clock stops. Your car doesn't.
Fifteen minutes across town, then again after lunch, then again. Most homecare rotas simply don't pay for the road in between.
Roughly how long do you spend driving between visits each day, unpaid?
In a 2023 UNISON survey, 3 in 4 homecare workers said they weren't paid for travel time between visits (UNISON, June 2023).
A 40-minute hole in the rota. Too short to go home.
So you sit in the car park with a flask and your phone. You're at work, just not, apparently, working.
How much dead time sits between your visits on a typical day?
Care notes, messages, "quick" calls to the office.
Logging visits, chasing rotas, texting families. It has to be done, it's part of the job, and it happens on your own time.
Daily admin outside visits: notes, calls, apps?
And unpaid training or shadowing across the year?
Last visit done. Now the day sends you its invoice.
Fuel and wear on the car, the phone the job runs on, shoes and PPE you replaced yourself. HMRC's approved mileage rate, meant to cover fuel plus wear and tear, is 55p a mile; most agencies pay far less, if anything.
Miles driven per working day
Mileage your employer pays (pence/mile)
Anything below HMRC's 55p comes out of your own pocket.
Phone used for work, per month
Kit per year: uniform, shoes, PPE, DBS
HMRC's approved tax-free mileage rate (meant to cover fuel plus wear and tear) is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles (2026/27, GOV.UK). An enhanced DBS check costs £49.50, plus £16 a year for the DBS Update Service (GOV.UK).
Home. One shift done. Now zoom out to the year.
That's £— missing every week:
These are before income tax and National Insurance: an estimate of what your time is worth on your own numbers, not cash in hand or financial advice.
Every week your work is worth £435 at your own rate, but you only take home £295. Your real rate is £8.69/hr, not £12.80.
For reference, the National Living Wage for over-21s is £12.71/hr (GOV.UK, from April 2026).
That £6,704 a year isn't a wish list: it's what your own time is already worth.
Before income tax and National Insurance: an estimate of what your time is worth, not cash in hand.
Pick what matters most to you:
That's about 2 years of part-time childcare (£70/wk, Coram 2025), the care you’re paying for out of your own unpaid time.
It's what your own time is worth, on your own numbers, before tax. An estimate, not money we can promise.
On a fair ZipCare rate, you set your price to cover this time, so much more of that £6,704 could stay with you, the childcare sorted, without a single extra unpaid hour.
That £6,704 is before tax: what your time is worth, not cash in hand. In the plan below you set your rate and see what it actually becomes in your pocket, after tax, right next to what you take home now.
Anonymous, read by a human, no need for names, and we can't reply.
Review your day
- Rate & hours: £12.80 · 25 hrs/wk
- Unpaid travel: 60 min/day
- Gaps: 30 min/day
- Admin & training: 15 min/day · 10 hrs/yr
- Costs: 15 mi · 25p · £5/mo · £60/yr
Same day. Same care. A rate that actually pays.
On ZipCare, families book you directly and pay your rate, so the travel, gaps and admin the agency never counted finally get paid.
A care hour was never cheap. The problem is how little of it reaches you. Here's a rate that changes that.
Set what you want to keep
Right now you keep about £8.69/hr for every hour you actually work. Set a new rate, tap a starting point or drag:
A year
before tax
In your pocket
after tax
About £509/wk before tax, £445/wk after estimated tax and National Insurance.
About £7,061 a year more than you take home from the agency now, once your week's full.
The rate to set on ZipCare
It's higher than the £15.00/hr you keep on purpose: your rate has to cover the unpaid travel, gaps and admin between visits, plus your own costs, not just the time in the home. ZipCare's 12% is added on top for the family; you pay £0.
See the full breakdown: what a family pays, tax & the agency comparison
Over the ~34 hours you really work each week, £15.00/hr kept is about £509/wk, £24,450 a year before tax.
Because the first £12,570 a year is tax-free, after estimated self-employed tax & National Insurance (20% + 6% Class 4 NI over that allowance; 2026/27) you'd keep roughly 87%, about £21,361 a year in your pocket (£445/wk, £13.11/hr worked). Assuming ZipCare is your only taxable income, earn under £12,570 in total and you keep it all.
Like-for-like (self-employed here, employed at the agency), your agency job brings in about £14,300 a year after tax, over a full 52 weeks with its paid holiday counted. Turn on the optional pension set-aside and you match its workplace pension too. The ZipCare figure assumes you fill the same hours at your new rate.
A rough estimate on your own numbers, not tax advice.
The gap between what you list and what you keep isn't profit: it's your travel, gaps and admin, finally being paid for. Against the £26 to £38 an hour a family typically pays an agency (MoneyHelper), what they'd pay for your hour is at the lower end, not the expensive option. An illustrative figure on your own numbers, not a quote.
You're a professional. Your rate should say so.
Families pay 12% incl. VAT. Carers pay £0. No joining fee, no subscription, no cut of your rate. That's the whole model.
- ID-verified carers
- £0 carer fees
- Free insurance on self-employed bookings
- Payment held till you both confirm
Wherever you are, join and we'll tell you the moment it reaches your area.
On ZipCare you work for yourself: your rate, your visits, your clients. That means no employer sick pay, paid holiday or workplace pension, and you handle your own tax and National Insurance, which the rate-setter above estimates for you (the in-pocket figure, plus the optional pension set-aside). Prefer to be employed? ZipCare will also offer an employed route with PAYE, payslips and statutory benefits.
Your rate card, yours to keep
A shareable summary of what your time is worth and the rate to charge for it. No email needed. It's generated right here, from your own numbers.
Save it now to keep or attach to a message. Emailing stores these figures with your email so we can send the card. Never anything about your employer, we don't ask.
Why care workers' real pay is lower than the contract says
Homecare pay is usually built around "contact time", the minutes inside a client's home. Travel between visits counts as working time (GOV.UK), yet in a 2023 UNISON survey 3 in 4 homecare workers said they weren't paid for it. Add the waiting in between, the care notes written at the kitchen table, the mandatory refresher training, and mileage often reimbursed below HMRC's approved 55p rate, and each hour you actually work can be worth noticeably less than the rate on your contract.
This calculator makes the invisible visible, with every assumption shown and sourced, then helps you work out the self-employed rate at which your time genuinely pays, holiday included.
Common questions
How does the calculator work out my real hourly rate?
It takes your weekly pay for the hours you're paid for, subtracts your out-of-pocket work costs (the shortfall below HMRC's 55p approved mileage rate, plus phone, training and kit), then divides by ALL the hours you actually give to work: paid visits plus unpaid travel, gaps, admin and training. That's your real effective rate.
What counts as working time?
Travel between care visits counts as working time under GOV.UK guidance, but homecare pay is usually built around 'contact time', the minutes inside someone's home. In a 2023 UNISON survey, 3 in 4 homecare workers said they weren't paid for travel between visits. This tool shows what those unpaid hours and your own costs do to your effective rate. It's an estimate based on the numbers you enter, not a legal calculation.
What rate should I charge as a self-employed carer?
Enough that the hourly pay you want to keep (before tax) covers ALL your working hours (not just contact time), your expenses and unpaid holiday: that's what the rate-setter works out. Remember self-employment means no employer sick pay or workplace pension, and you handle your own tax and National Insurance, which the rate-setter estimates for you.
Who made this calculator?
ZipCare, a UK care platform launching soon. Carers on ZipCare pay zero platform fees and keep 100% of their rate; families pay one transparent 12% fee including VAT.
Sources & assumptions
- In a 2023 UNISON survey, 3 in 4 homecare workers said they weren't paid for travel time between visits (UNISON, June 2023).
- Median pay for care workers in England's independent sector: £12.60/hr (December 2025), just 39p above the legal minimum (Skills for Care).
- National Living Wage (21+): £12.71/hr from 1 April 2026 (GOV.UK).
- 18 to 20 year olds have a lower minimum wage of £10.85/hr (2026/27, GOV.UK).
- HMRC's approved tax-free mileage rate (meant to cover fuel plus wear and tear) is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles (2026/27, GOV.UK).
- Homecare agencies usually charge £26 to £38 an hour (MoneyHelper, citing the Homecare Association); the Association calculates £34.42/hr as the minimum a compliant provider needs to charge in England (2026/27).
- The NHS says help at home from a paid carer typically costs £15 to £30 an hour, depending on where you live (NHS).
- An enhanced DBS check costs £49.50, plus £16 a year for the DBS Update Service (GOV.UK).
- Illustrative: one typical week × 48 working weeks (about 4 weeks of unpaid time off for a self-employed carer). Your contract and circumstances will vary.
Figures checked July 2026. These are estimates based on the numbers you enter, and figures are before tax and National Insurance: guidance, not financial or legal advice. This tool keeps an anonymous record of how it was used, to build honest averages. Never your name, email or anything about your employer. We only hold an email if you choose to give one.