Job that has lots of work available but is almost 0 hours contract?

[FancyTaupeBiscuit]

I've done the role before years ago and enjoyed it, for a different company. Some companies do offer guaranteed hours contracts, I interviewed for this one and was successful but they can only guarantee 25 hours a month, which is what, about 6.5 a week?
They've said that there is always plenty of work available and I could work 40-50 hours a week if I wanted. I understand the nature of this work means things can change from week to week, but I need the stability.
I'm planning to apply for another mortgage in about a year from now and I imagine not having contracted hours would make things harder.
I did ask them if the guaranteed hours would increase after a certain amount of time or based on consistent availability, but they did not respond.
Based on this would you avoid this role? It's a shame but I am finding a lot of companies expect full availability whilst being unable to guarantee hours.

Are you currently employed. If your not I’d take it and see how many shifts you get and carry on looking. If you find something else then you can say to them you have another offer, would like to stay but only on the basis they can guarantee hours going forwards. Once you’ve proven yourself they might be more willing

Yes that's a good idea thanks, if I weren't going to apply for the mortgage I'd be less concerned but I'm worried it's going to make things harder for me.

I think it's very hard to get a mortgage on a zero or near zero hours contract. It's all very well them saying there's loads of work but there's no consequence to them if there suddenly isn't. They can just not offer you the shifts. And you can't say or do anything about it.

It seems inevitable that in jobs like that there will be quiet periods. Else they'd probably give everyone more contracted hours as that would make the job easier to recruit.

Yes you're right they're doing it to protect themselves. It's care work and I know generally they're often short-staffed but they're also constantly recruiting. You'd think they'd value staff a bit more who are offering consistent availability. I'll look for another company as some do pay guaranteed hours or offer block shift payments rather than per care call.

Yeah I think you should look for ones with better terms and hours. If it's per call and you're not paid travel time it could even be dropping below NMW?

Good luck x

I did it as a bank nurse. Always more work than I wanted but no guarantee hours.