Pay sleep-in carers but not at the cost of reduced support

Mon,6 November 2017
News Equality & Rights

Government announces new Social Care Compliance Scheme to help employers pay sleep-in carers.

Read Department of Health, HM Revenue & Customs news story

Social care employers will be able to opt into a new Social Care Compliance Scheme (SCCS), giving them up to a year to identify what they owe to workers, supported by advice from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Employers who identify arrears at the end of the self-review period will have up to three months to pay workers.

HMRC will write to social care employers who currently have a complaint against them for allegedly underpaying minimum wage rates for sleep-in shifts to encourage them to sign up to the scheme. Employers that choose not to opt into the scheme will be subject to HMRC’s normal enforcement approach.

In response to the announcement, DR UK Deputy CEO Sue Bott said:

“Although employers will have longer to deal with any underpayment of sleep-ins the government announcement fails to get to the heart of the problem. 

Of course, PAs and other social care staff should be paid the proper rate for the job but a direct payment must be sufficient to cover the costs. 

Unfortunately, what we are seeing is that people are having to reduce the support they have in the day to pay for support at night. 

The hole in social care funding just gets deeper every day with disabled people and older people having to pay the price through lack of essential support."