Quick summary
Most care jobs pay for the visit, not the drive between visits. That is how a £13 hourly rate becomes £9 in practice. Travel between appointments counts as working time for National Minimum Wage purposes, and it is still where a lot of care pay quietly disappears.
The arithmetic
Take a typical morning round of five visits.
Paid for contact time only | Paid for travel time too | |
|---|---|---|
Contact time | 5 hours | 5 hours |
Driving between visits | 1.5 hours, unpaid | 1.5 hours, paid |
Hours actually worked | 6.5 | 6.5 |
Paid at £13 an hour | £65 | £84.50 |
Real hourly earnings | £10 | £13 |
The advert says £13 in both columns but the bank statement does not.
This is the single most useful thing to understand before accepting any care job, and almost nobody applying knows to ask about it.
What the law says
Travel between appointments counts as working time for National Minimum Wage purposes. It is not a grey area.
Where a rate is close to the legal minimum and travel is unpaid, total pay divided by total hours worked can fall below the National Living Wage, which from April 2026 is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over. Skills for Care found the median care worker in England’s independent sector was on £12.60 an hour in December 2025, with 26 per cent paid on or within 10p of the minimum.
Put those two facts together and you can see why travel time matters so much at the bottom of the market.
Why so many providers do not pay it
Being fair about this, it is mostly arithmetic rather than meanness.
The Homecare Association calculates that an hour of home care in England needs to cost £34.42 in 2026/27 to cover the National Living Wage, travel time, training, holiday pay and cover. The average rate councils actually pay is £24.39.
A provider working mainly on council contracts is about £10 an hour short of the cost of doing it properly. Something gives, and the three things that give are visit length, pay and travel time. Our piece on 15-minute visits follows the same chain from the client’s side.
What it costs us, and why we do it anyway
Paying travel time means a carer’s paid hours are meaningfully higher than their contact hours, and that has to be covered by the hourly rate we charge. Ours is £36, against a local average of about £35 in Macclesfield and £39 across Cheshire East. That is the connection: the price and the pay policy are the same decision.
It is also why we can hold an hour as the minimum visit. A round built on paid travel and hour-long calls has enough slack in it to absorb a visit that overruns, which is what stops the rest of the day collapsing.
The return is retention. Our carer turnover is 12 per cent, against a sector figure of 23.7 per cent (Skills for Care, 2025). Recruiting and training a replacement costs more than paying for the driving.
Why this matters more here than in a city
Because of the geography. A round covering Chelford, Mobberley and Goostrey has real distance in it. Macclesfield’s terraced streets often mean parking two roads away and walking. Wincle, Wildboarclough, Meerbrook and Longnor are a serious drive in any month and a slow one in February.
On an unpaid-travel contract, a rural round is financially punishing and nobody wants it, which is exactly why families in the villages struggle to find a provider at all.
What to ask any care employer
- Is travel time between visits paid? A yes or no, not “it’s built into the rate”.
- What is the mileage rate? Ours is 35p a mile.
- What is the shortest visit you will send me on?
- How are rounds built? By area, or across the whole patch.
- Roughly how many miles a week would this round involve?
- What is your carer turnover?
“It’s built into the rate” is the answer worth probing. Ask what the rate would be without it, and whether travel appears separately on the payslip.
What we pay
- £15.70 an hour once a three month probation is complete.
- £14.70 an hour during probation.
- 35p a mile.
- Travel time between visits is paid.
- No visit shorter than an hour.
- Rounds built by area, so less driving and the same clients each week.
Frequently asked questions
Do carers get paid for travel time?
They should. Travel between appointments counts as working time for minimum wage purposes. In practice it varies by employer, which is why it is worth asking directly before accepting a job.
Is mileage the same as travel time?
No. Mileage covers the cost of running the car. Travel time is payment for the time spent driving. You should have both.
What if my employer does not pay it?
Work out your total pay divided by your total hours worked including travel. If it falls below the National Living Wage, that is a minimum wage issue. Free advice is available from Citizens Advice or the Acas helpline.
Does travel from home to the first visit count?
Ordinary commuting to your first appointment generally does not count. Travel between assignments during the working day does.
Does paying travel time make care more expensive for clients?
Yes, and that is a fair trade. It is part of why our rate is £36 an hour rather than the minimum the market will bear.
Do I need my own car?
For most rounds in this area, yes. Our next article covers the exceptions.
How to apply
Call us on 01625 720157 and ask about caregiver roles. Ask the six questions above while you are on the phone, and ask them of everyone else you speak to as well.
Visiting Angels Cheshire East covers Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Knutsford, Congleton, Alsager, Buxton, Whaley Bridge, Leek, Biddulph and Kidsgrove. Rounds are built around where you live.
Authored by Kim Blissett, Registered Manager, Visiting Angels Cheshire East.
Published 27 September 2026. Last updated 27 September 2026.
This article is general information about pay in the care sector and is not employment or legal advice, nor a contractual offer of employment. Pay rates and terms are correct at the date of publication and may change. Sector figures are from Skills for Care and the Homecare Association, and the National Living Wage is set by government. For advice on minimum wage entitlements see GOV.UK, Acas or Citizens Advice. To the fullest extent permitted by law, GB Care at Home Ltd accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on this article.
