Hiring a carer privately vs using an agency

Quick summary

Hiring privately is cheaper per hour, often by a third. You also become an employer, which means PAYE, employer’s liability insurance, holiday pay, pension auto-enrolment, a contract, a DBS check you cannot apply for yourself, and cover when they are ill. For some families that trade is clearly worth it. For others it is not.

The three ways to arrange care at home

People talk about two options, and there are really three, which is where a lot of confusion starts.

• An agency. You pay the agency, the carers are their staff, and the responsibilities are theirs.
• Employing a personal assistant directly. You become their employer, with everything that follows.
• Engaging a genuinely self-employed carer. No employment duties, and you must be confident their self-employed status is correct, because if HMRC disagrees the liability lands on you.

That third one catches people out. Employment status is decided by the facts of the arrangement, not by what either side calls it. If you set the hours, direct the work and provide the equipment, HMRC may well consider that person employed.

What it costs

For local context, Cheshire East Council’s direct payment rate for employing a personal assistant was £16.21 an hour from 1 April 2025, and the council is explicit that this has to cover payroll and insurance as well as wages, so the carer will not receive the full amount (Cheshire East Council). Check the current rate, as it is reviewed annually.

The rule of thumb some councils use is that a personal assistant’s actual pay is roughly 20 per cent below the hourly rate paid to the employer, once the extras are covered.

What becoming an employer actually involves

Carers UK, MoneyHelper and the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group all set this out, and the list is longer than most families expect.

• Register with HMRC as an employer and operate PAYE, deducting tax and National Insurance and paying employer’s National Insurance. Note that care and support employers cannot use the standard online registration route, which surprises people at step one.
• Pay at least the National Minimum Wage, which is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026, and keep records.
• Take out employer’s liability insurance. This is a legal requirement, and public liability cover is also recommended.
• Provide a written contract of employment.
• Give statutory holiday, 5.6 weeks a year pro rata, and pay it.
• Handle sick pay, maternity and paternity pay.
• Auto-enrol them into a workplace pension if they qualify, and contribute.
• Check their right to work in the UK.
• Arrange a DBS check. Individuals cannot apply for an enhanced DBS check for themselves, so this goes through a registered umbrella body.
• Meet health and safety duties, including risk assessment and equipment such as gloves and moving aids.
• Arrange training, including moving and handling and medication, and keep it up to date.
• Deal with disciplinary matters, grievances and redundancy if the arrangement ends.

Most of this is manageable with a payroll service, and in Cheshire East support with employing a personal assistant is available through the independent living service at ilscheshire@peopleplus.co.uk. The part that no service removes is being the manager.

The things families underestimate

Cover. This is the big one. If your personal assistant has flu, or their child is ill, or they go on holiday, nobody sends a replacement. You do it, or you find someone. An agency absorbs this invisibly, and you only notice the value when you no longer have it.

Being the manager of someone you see every day. Raising a concern about timekeeping or standards with a person who washes your mother, in your mother’s kitchen, is harder than it sounds.

Nobody checks the care. There is no supervision, no spot checks, no registered manager, and no regulator. Whether that matters depends on the person and how much you can see.

Insurance gaps. If your carer hurts their back moving your father, employer’s liability insurance is what stands between you and a claim.

Where hiring privately genuinely works better

Being straight about this, since we are an agency.

• Long, stable hours with one person. Twenty or thirty hours a week for the same individual is where the saving is largest and the admin is proportionally smallest.
• You already know the person. A neighbour or former carer you trust removes the hardest part, which is recruitment.
• You want total control over who comes and what they do.
• Someone in the family has the capacity to manage it, including the paperwork and the difficult conversations.
• Needs are stable and predictable, with no likelihood of a sudden change.

Where an agency tends to win

• Fewer hours. The admin does not shrink with the hours, so five hours a week carries the same overhead as thirty.
• Two carers needed, or a hoist, where training and cover get complicated.
• Unpredictable or changing needs, such as after a hospital discharge. Our discharge guide covers how quickly things change in those first weeks.
• Nobody local to manage it. Being an employer from two hours away is hard.
• You want someone accountable other than yourself when something goes wrong.
• Overnight or live-in care, where working time rules get technical.

Can you do both?

Yes, and plenty of families do. A directly employed personal assistant for the regular weekday hours, with an agency covering weekends, holidays and sickness, gets you most of the saving without the cover problem.

If the council funds any part of the care, a direct payment is what makes either route possible, and you can split it. There is more in our comparison of live-in and hourly care on where the arithmetic tips.

Frequently asked questions

Is it cheaper to hire a carer privately?

Per hour, usually yes, often by around a third once you compare like with like. The saving narrows once you add employer’s National Insurance, holiday pay, pension, insurance and payroll costs, and it narrows further at low hours.

Do I have to use PAYE?

If the person is your employee, yes. If they are genuinely self-employed, they invoice you and handle their own tax, and it is your responsibility to be sure that status is correct.

Can I check their DBS myself?

Not directly. Individuals cannot apply for an enhanced DBS check, so you go through a registered umbrella body. Ask to see any existing certificate and check whether they are on the DBS update service.

What insurance do I need?

Employer’s liability insurance is a legal requirement for employers, and public liability cover is also recommended. Specialist policies exist for people employing care staff at home.

Can I pay a family member?

Through a direct payment, generally not a close relative living in the same household, though councils can agree exceptions. Ask your social care worker rather than assuming.

What if it goes wrong?

With an agency you have a complaints procedure and, if unresolved, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. With direct employment you have employment law and your own judgement.

Where to get independent advice

Before deciding, it is worth reading someone with no stake in the answer.

• Carers UK on employing a care worker directly.
• MoneyHelper on employing a private carer.
• Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, which is the clearest source on the tax side.
• Skills for Care, which publishes resources for individual employers.
• Cheshire East Council, or the right council for your area if you are over the Derbyshire or Staffordshire border.

About Visiting Angels Cheshire East

Visiting Angels Cheshire East provides care at home across Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Knutsford, Congleton, Alsager and the surrounding villages of East Cheshire, along with Buxton, Whaley Bridge and the Staffordshire Moorlands towns.

• Cover is our problem, not yours. Holidays, sickness and short notice are handled by the office.
• You choose your caregiver. You meet them before care starts, and if it is not right you say so and we send someone else, which is the main thing people think they can only get by employing someone directly.
• No visit is ever shorter than an hour.
• You see the same faces. Our carer turnover is 12 per cent, against a sector figure of 23.7 per cent (Skills for Care, 2025).
• Carers trained in dementia, Parkinson’s, stroke recovery and complex care.

Jude’s mother Joyce is 100 and lives by herself:

“Joyce lives by herself and we needed a care provider that could give us the same carer most visits. Visiting Angels have been able to accommodate this, which is very helpful. They know her routine and have built up a rapport with my Mum. Understanding the details of her routine is an important part of her care and wellbeing. I trust them with keys, security and being with Mum to, cook, sit and talk and give tablets etc etc..”

Jude Burton, Google review

Not sure what you need yet? Start with a free assessment

Our free home care assessment is a visit at a time that suits you, with no obligation afterwards. In it we will:

• Work out what is actually difficult, and how many hours it realistically needs.
• Put our cost in writing, so you can compare it against the true cost of employing someone.
• Look at the money with you, and point you towards the funding, benefits and grants you may be entitled to.
• Tell you honestly if employing someone directly is the better answer, which at high, stable hours it sometimes is.

If you are weighing the two up, call us on 01625 720157. You can also send an enquiry, and you can see what our services cover.

Authored by Dr Niall Jawad, Managing Director, Visiting Angels Cheshire East.

Published 27 September 2026. Last updated 27 September 2026.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice, and no substitute for advice about your circumstances. Employment status, tax and insurance duties are complex and getting them wrong can be costly; take advice from HMRC, a payroll provider or an adviser such as the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group before employing anyone. We are an agency and so have an interest in this comparison; please weigh it alongside Carers UK and MoneyHelper. Rates were correct at the date of publication. To the fullest extent permitted by law, GB Care at Home Ltd accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on this article.