Minimum wage laws broken by 120 home care firms due to local council cuts

A lack of council funding is forcing home care providers for the elderly to find ways to avoid paying staff minimum wages, the head of the Low Pay Commission has warned.
David Norgrove of the Low Pay Commission told The Guardian newspaper that the Commission knows of 120 care providers that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are investigating.

The Commission claims home care providers have been forced into this position by councils drastically cutting the rates they pay companies to provide care to the elderly and frail.

The Guardian reported that Mr Norgrove warned the speed at which councils have been cutting funding has led to care providers being forced to find ways of lowering costs, such as not paying staff travel time between visits.

Local councils are cutting the price they pay home care agencies to carry out basic caring duties such as washing, feeding and helping older people dress, which care firms are arguing has made meeting minimum wage laws increasingly difficult.

The Alzheimer’s Society responded to the news and in a statement said: “It’s disgraceful that care companies are paying care workers such low salaries. Combined with the recent revelation that many care workers are only staying in people’s homes for 15-minutes at a time, this latest news highlights how carers cannot possibly be providing the good quality care that people need.

“Two thirds of people with dementia currently live in the community and many will have to rely on help with day-to-day tasks. With an ageing population, more and more people are going to need care in their own homes. We need to invest in care workers and ensure that they are given the support they need to provide the best care possible. The current social care system is broken and urgently needs to be fixed – otherwise we’ll all be paying the price.”

The United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) also told The Guardian newspaper it believes an estimated a minimum of £14.95 an hour should be paid by a council to a home care company to fulfill wage and training responsibilities, but £11 or less is being paid to a fifth of companies.

This has led to companies struggling to fulfil minimum wage law or risk going out of business.

Home Instead Senior Care only provides home care visits of one hour or more in order to ensure service user’s need are completely met and blamed councils for forcing down the quality of care being provided by cutting funding.

Describing how typically they will not enter into block contracts, Trevor Brocklebank, CEO of the company said: “We will not enter in to block contracts because they force providers into delivering short-duration care visits and we refuse to work in this way. We have a minimum care visit of one hour’s duration as this allows us to deliver person-centred, dignified care that focuses on the needs of the individual rather than simply carrying out a list of tasks.

“The other issue, as highlighted in today’s article, is that Councils are not paying viable rates. The race to the bottom has got to stop.

“Councils simply cannot carry on driving down the quality of care – and that’s exactly what they are doing by dramatically reducing the rates they pay care providers.

“Councils should be paying a fair rate for a quality service. Clearly this isn’t happening.”