community nhs- car expenses getting me down

[mumtobe9]

I have been working in the community for the last 2 years (prior to this i was in a hospital). Apart from the obvious differences between working in a hospital and the community (ie entering Covid patient's houses and later returning to my family car with the same shoes, uniform... my DC will be getting into that car later on!), i am getting fed up with the fact that we have to go through significantly more expenses than compared to someone based on one site (being hospital, care home, etc).

Yes we are paid a mileage, which is 56p per mile and we are deducted abut of tax after that. Nevertheless, i dont feel that that covers for all the wear and tear and high risk of accidents that you put yourself to when visiting many patients a day. I had to take extra business cover in my insurance that was about 15 pounds extra a month. Then the decrease in value of the car, extra servicing you have to do (changing oil, tires more often that you did if you didn't use the care as much) you cannot buy the car you like but the one thats more practical for your work (ie, to carry equipment).... I drive in good neighbourhoods, bad neighbourhoods, up the hills/outskirts with bendy roads full of potholes... I had a flat tyre a few months ago, another car scratched my car while i was inside patient's home and now my car has broken down. 2 mechanics have advised me not to drive it but they dont have any slots free until January. Another one has one slot just before new years eve. The car is just 5 years old but i bought it 1.5 years ago in perfect condition.
My insurance won't give me a courtesy car, my manager said he can facilitate 1 day max working on the office, however i will have to rent a car for next week as i am one of the very few nurses working through Christmas and they counted on me to plan the holiday cover.
Im fed up, i feel i have worn out my "new" car after not even 2 years and now i will have to spend 3k in a new gearbox or buy a new car in a rush. I dont even want to buy an expensive car because its going to get run over in 6 months time.

The NHS should give us a company car or an extra insurance policy to cover for a courtesy car should you need it. If i was to have a car accident at work, my car insurance would go up to the roof and nobody else would cover that cost.

is there an equality issue here? "Static" staff in my trust are having free parking and free bus transport since the beginning of the pandemic. I can't understand why this has never been raised before by unions, or maybe i am just very unlucky?

This one reason I didn't go back to District nursing after a break and went into the local hospital instead.
It costs too much to run cars now, it isn't worth it.
I'd tell my manager well you'll have to get someone else to cover Christmas then I have no car. I bet they will magic one up.

I know,nobody talks about it in our profession (or other professions), so i feel i am being unreasonable. But if the damage is big, i might have to buy a new car and i dont want to take another loan to have the car worn out again in another year. I also had a few near misses accidents that made me think that i am putting my life/health more at risk than i was before. Pity because i like my job and i know it is hard to recruit people for community jobs (since many also dont enjoy the lone side of being a community worker).
I amuse the idea of raising the issue with my union (that NHS should pay extra mileage or cover courtesy cars in case of car problems) and make a positive change for community staff (just like the woman who made a case that NHW employees were entitled to accrue for AL and BH during maternity leave). But i probably won't do it... not brave/or feel entitled enough.

I think this is an interesting point. My dh is civil service and when he has to travel for business he can hire a car. Tbf that's not every day. I think community staff are often offered lease car deals? But expect this is expensive. I'm interested because I have just started a high mileage nhs job!

A lot of home care work is relying on people using their cars. That's what put me off.
Some are close to minimum wage, which is F* all!
Care work is hugely undervalued.

56p a mile is loads, I don't understand how that doesn't cover your costs.

My business insurance doesn't cost anywhere near £15 pm either.

I'd bite my employers hand off to do all my work mileage in my own car, even though we get the standard 45p a mile, rather than pissing about with hire cars.

Does your Trust have a lease car scheme? I lease a car through work, I pay a monthly amount through my salary which covers the car, servicing, tax, and insurance, plus all repairs (minus an excess). Works out to be pretty good value.

What did your job description say? Mine says needs to be a driver not a car owner so I no longer drive much for work. To be fair it is mostly clinic work and a few home/school /nursery visits. Pre covid would use public transport notes I hire a zip card for a couple days a month and so virtual instead of in clinic.

I don't work for the NHS but I am community based providing tenancy support. I get paid 45p per mile so 56p per mile in comparison in generous, although I am lucky that my business use on my insurance does not make my insurance any more expensive. Years back we were paid essential car use at roughly 85.00 per month but years of government cuts means that no employer in my field offers this any longer. Wear & tear on my car is quite significant especially tyres & brakes as some of the areas I visit are quite rough & I've lost count of the number of puncture repairs I've had! Tbh my cars are normally 3-4 years old when I buy them & I don't have to carry equipment so I end buying a car I like. In all honesty given the current climate I'm just happy to have a job & using my car enables me to do the job.

@BarbaraofSeville it covers
My petrol costs but every month I have a problem with the car. A punctured tired: 100 pounds. Scratched chasis (I didn’t even care to fix it tbh). Now I’m facing a few k £ if it’s the gearbox. And now I have to rent a car for 2 weeks for 400£ because how I dare to have a broken car before Christmas. I wouldn’t mind if I only had to do 10 trips or so a week, but it’s just too much wear and tear (not to speak about the boot being full of PPE/ work supplies and having to empty the boot every time I want to go shopping or put the buggie in the boot. I am just saying that for the same salary, I might as well work in a hospital/intermediate care setting where i don’t have to drive through precarious roads, Parton dodgy places and where I am surrounded by colleagues, I can get changed and showered before stepping into my car and I can have my break (if I’m lucky) with other humans beings.

There is a salary sacrifice for lease cars but I don’t know if money wise it makes sense? My pension would be very reduced too since I am also on reduced hours.

All the contracts from my trust say that you need to have your own car, this can be waved if on case of disability, you can still fulfil the duties of your post by using other means ie public transport

I get about 45mpg in my car, so 10miles per litre. So that costs about 11-12p a mile in fuel.

Then you probably have to have a service every 10k miles, so let's say £500 for that, so 5p a mile for that.

My business insurance is less than £15pcm but if you do say 500 business miles a month, then that would be 3p a mile.

So then you have 36p a mile to cover depreciation (but obviously you could choose to buy a cheap car). If you do 6k business miles a year (500 a month), that's £2,160 for those additional miles alone.

My nhs trusts provide pool cars for such job roles. Some staff use their own car and claim mileage. They tried to get me to do so and I just told them I didn’t own a car and couldn’t afford one, they soon found me a pool car!

This was a big reason why I went in to General Practice over community. I don't particularly enjoy driving and the thought of parking 20 times a day and the wear and tear on a car (knowing from my community mentors how the 56p doesn't go that far, especially if you're town based as the miles aren't a lot but short trips take a much bigger toll on cars) really put me off.
I absolutely love general practice, perhaps you would too? I went straight in, you'd be better placed with your community experience and CCGs now have training courses especially for those new to the role.

You need to look at your insurance, there is no reason it has to be that much extra per month and plenty insurance offer courtesy cars ( I've seen the problems not having this caused a colleague so this is an absolute must for me)

I agree when you work it out 56p a mile isn’t that generous. However, I dont understand your gripe about static staff. Why don’t you apply for a role with a permanent base?

@purdypuma I feel your pain! I suppose I am lucky and cont complain. I may just need to apply for hospital jobs in the future if i find so bothersome to have problems with the car. This is our only car so when my DC are older if I’m still in the community we would have to buy a second car, which doesn’t make sense moneywise.
It’s just a pity that they complain that nobody wants to be a home care worker! Too much bother and responsibility for minimal wage. But our politicians can claim petrol, food, heating and whatnot expenses

@Nacreous I pay tax for those miles too. And your calculations don’t cover for the car breaking down or having an accident (because you are rushing between clients).

@BungleandGeorge sorry, just having one of those days. This year hasn’t been easy and I now appreciate some of the advantages I had in my previous job. Nevertheless If the nhs wants to sort out its staffing shortages they could improve some of our working conditions

I am NHS and community based and travel around making many visits a day. I love it though, and much prefer it to be being based in one place all the time! It sounds as if you have decided maybe community work isn't for you for several reasons. I find the mileage allowance to be fine (also 56p.) I haven't faced any big expenses on my car tbh and have had it for 3 years. I did use the NHS lease car scheme for a few years too - this may be helpful to you as you dont have to worry then about repair costs etc if anything goes wrong on your car.

In terms of whether the lease car is worth it, I pay about £120 per month. My insurance was high because I didn't have much no claims, and given that it also covers all repairs and servicing I think that it probably saves me money overall.

I agree with you. I work in the public sector, LA, education.
I need a car for my job, with extra business insurance. Mileage is paid but only from the central office so much of my travel is additional to that. It actually costs me to go to schools and between schools to do my job.
Without this job we wouldn't even need a second car, I never use it for anything but work...so £15,000 tied up in that too.

I keep in mind that when I was a headteacher, diesel cost me £350 per month ..so I'm better off than that.

Oh and did leave my car parked outside a school, to find it had been damaged and left...no one ever admitted to it.

56p per mile is rubbish, its taxed and even a minor repair bill costs 100's plus extra ins costs, depreciation, wear n tear, accidents.

My DD was doing care work 3 or 4 days a week over summer, maybe 50 or 60 miles per week (they don't pay to first client), all stop start go, lanes, hills, the clutch went on her car... £360.

At my work, we get £313 per month car allowance plus petrol @ 10p (engine size dependent) or a company car.

When are we going to value healthcare staff? Short answer - Never, we are all too selfish

Clapping is cheaper.

How many miles has the car done? 5 years is poor for a gear box

SadderThanEeyore
I was just about to say that
In 30 plus years of driving I’ve never had a gearbox or clutch go
My nephew on the other hand went through 3 clutches and 2 gearboxes in 5 years as he was riding the clutch and in general a crap driver to to having dyspraxia
He has an automatic now and hasn’t had a problem since
I would look at leasing OP as long as you don’t go over the mileage you can get a decent brand new car every 3 years for 120 - 150 a month

Are you sure you pay tax on your travel expenses? I don’t, it’s ‘non taxable pay’ on my payslip (also NHS).