Is £20 an hour reasonable for privately funded carer cover?

[Lzzyisgod]

Long story (as always!) and having established (with him not us!) df needs a 2nd carer.(to cover the amazing carer he has ) on days off/ annual leave etc.

DF is privately funding and I was pretty shocked at a few responses to our advert tbh - he isn't nursing care level but needs prompts and support (minimal moving and handling and personal care) but we had some applicants who applied who wanted more money and im curious to see if this was a general trend.

We advertised at £20 per hour (which we thought was fair) but some of the applicants were asking for £24 - 30 an hour. DSIS is a B7 nhs nurse and that's more than she's on!

We are East Mids so not am overly affluent area. Am I in the wrong job? Or is that reasonable for a carer per hour?

My mum is paying £34 an hour during the week. I imagine it would be more at weekends or evenings. She is in Shropshire.

Thanks everyone for the input. Clearly we were very naive about the cost.

I think he is claiming as much as he is entitled to - he gets the full daytime rate for attendance allowance (not eligible at the moment for night time but it will likely come at some point further down the road) but I will double check - the local parkinsons support group are usually pretty proactive on making sure everyone is getting the right things and have been very helpful in the past.

He was assessed a few years back by OT at ASC but things have progressed a lot in the last 9 months and we have requested a reassessment - our local area has just had CQC in and that made interesting reading - the wait is substantial though and initially is a phone consultation (which isn't hugely helpful for people with quiet voices and slow reactions in answering the phone but that's the process so we will muddle around it)

Solidarity with everyone dealing with this stage of life - it really isn't easy at all.

Family in East Midlands pay around £30 per 45 minute visit, more at weekends and bank holidays.

does he get Attendance Allowance to help fund support?

Some of these rates sound like agency rates not self-employed carer rates.

I'm paying £25 ph to our new self-employed carer. We previously paid the agency more but the carer got less.

Would you do it for £20ph? If so, there's your answer!

Presumably this would be one of several appointments during the day so they have to cover unpaid travel time and travel costs, plus holidays, sick pay, pension, as others have said.

This is all newish territory for us - I've never had need to employ a carer before now and the current carer is charging £25 but is leading on a few areas. In hindsight we should be paying her considerably more ........ I had no idea what's reasonable or not before asking what other people are paying. There is a lot of support on this board but its quite lonely in RL trying to navigate his gradual deterioration and the unpredictable day to day variability and his varying acceptance of what he needs he has.

And its not helped by df only wanting to pay what's he getting in attendance allowance (which is greatly received but isn't realistically going to cover everything he needs). Once a bank manager always a bank manager ......

That is nothing to do with OP.

I retired as a private carer just before Covid, I charged £25 per hour and had a waiting list.