Carer charging electric bike? How much adding to bill?

[helpmakingahome]

My aunt lives quite rurally and had a carer come in 3 times a day to help her get up etc. When the carer arrives, she immediately plugs in her electric bike into an extension lead in the outside lean to and leaves her bike charging there for an hour.

The carer keeps failing her driving test so can't get a car and relies on the electric bike to get her about. I understand that my aunt is quite remote and maybe the carer is worried about running out of battery in the middle of nowhere but it seems a bit off. I don't know how much this is adding to my aunt's electricity bill, she's on disability so quite a small fixed income. Any ideas how much it will be costing to charge? If it's a couple if quid then it's fine but I don't know. Is this normal now?

Here, in Australia, it costs NOTHING to charge my electric bike during the daytime.

If, on the other hand, I charge it overnight, it adds about 43 cents to do a long/ful charge. (About the amount it costs for a standard tea-cup of milk.)

Your aunt would be a cruel penny-pincher to refuse the carer a chance to "top-up" her e-bike battery.

Carers do not get a salary. They get paid per visit. If its more than 30 mins between locations, then they have to be out 12 hours to get paid 8 hours.

Nothing, most likely. I worked in care for years, with many different carers, from many different companies, all of them wanted to secure roles within extra care/supported living housing because they weren't being paid for travel, sometimes racking up to 2 hours a day in unpaid travel time.

I've yet to meet a carer who got paid for travel time.

They’re remunerated for the work they do. They’re not volunteers.

I’d be more concerned about it catching fire than the cost of the electricity.

I am not surprised.

She would be paying for the wear and tear of her bike too.

Not at the expense of a person who’s living on a small income.

Once the carer starts driving are you suggesting the aunt chis in for the carers petrol?

It's not a few pounds. It is literally a few pence.

If she had a car would you be paying her mileage?

It’s not a few pounds a day. It’s probably about 10p.

No. That's hardly comparable! 😂
Have you seen the cost of charging an e bike for an hour?! Less than £1, on average if that!!
If the aunt genuinely cannot afford that, perhaps the OP could pay...
It's hardly petrol!

OP was asking how much to charge the bike and the responses saying 20p ish are well within what they are happy for aunt to be paying.

No need for all the ‘you should be grateful to get a carer’ when she had no intention of stopping the charging.

It's in the lean to and she's using the battery which came with the bike, it should be ok.

You are being obtuse to the highest degree, and are the exact type of person who counts teabags and reports them stolen

Yet to see careers being paid for travel time which means it's hard to get one if living rural. Of course they don't want to spend a lot of time at work not paid.

Do you want to take on the caring yourself? If not, let it go.

This is actually costed into the price of care. Carers do receive payment for mileage/fuel costs. They don't get paid for travelling between service users, but they can claim back the cost of fuel.

I've heard of a client complaining that a carer was charging their mob8le phone when on a waking night
Honestly, it's pennies

No! That's really terrible. I'm sometimes amazed at how mean people are, but also how little they value care workers.

True. And if clients are too rural the career says no thank you and take on calls with less non paid travel time.

I wouldn't worry about the cost - it's nothing and a good carer is worth a little extra anyway.

I would evaluate the fire risk. Is the lean-to attached to the house?

Yes. People like me who believe that someone living on a small, fixed income due to poor health, and who requires a high level of care, should be able to spend their income on what benefits them. That they should not be expected to subsidise their carers’ travel expenses just because the individual is a carer and seen as beyond reproach.

The alternative is she does not have a carer. Like a few PP have said, getting a decent carer in a rural location is difficult.

Anything that is "costed" into the price of care absolutely does not get paid to carers! There is a nominal per mile fuel refund at a fraction of the cost, but absolutely nothing close to the real cost, and then on top of that, if it takes 40 minutes to drive to the ne t client, that 40 minutes in completely unpaid. But I guess the 16p per mile fuel reimbursement should cover that eh?

Tiny violins being played here....

Oh darling...