Self-Employed Carer Hourly Rates in the UK: 2026 Guide
Setting an hourly rate is one of the hardest things about being self-employed. Too low and you undercut yourself, work too hard, and end up earning less than a minimum-wage agency worker. Too high and you scare off clients who would have been a good fit. Finding the right number takes a bit of thought, and most carers get it wrong on the first pass.
This guide sets out what self-employed carers typically charge in the UK in 2026, the factors that shape the right rate for you, and how to set a rate that reflects your experience, covers your costs, and is still fair to the families you work with.
The short answer is £18 to £28 per hour
In 2026, self-employed carers in the UK typically charge between £18 and £28 per hour for visiting care. The middle of that range, around £25, is where most experienced carers sit.
Rates go higher for:
Specialist support (dementia, palliative care, post-operative recovery)
Complex care needs
Evenings, nights, weekends, and bank holidays
Short visits (30 or 45 minutes), where travel time is a bigger proportion of the work
London and the South East generally
Live-in care, priced per day rather than per hour, typically ranges from £150 to £200 per day for a self-employed carer, with higher rates for complex care or couples.
For comparison, agency carers in the UK are usually paid around the national minimum wage of £12.71 per hour by their employer, while clients pay the agency £30 to £40 per hour. That gap is why self-employment starts to look attractive, not only for carers but for families looking to reduce the costs of care.
What the Homecare Association says
The Homecare Association publishes a recommended minimum hourly rate each year. For 2025/26, it is £32 per hour. This is the minimum the Association considers sustainable for a provider to deliver compliant care while paying carers fairly, covering training, travel, insurance, supervision, and everything else that goes into running a care agency.
As a self-employed carer, you are not a provider in the regulatory sense. But the £32 figure is a useful reference point. It tells you what the sector itself considers a reasonable price for an hour of competent home care, and it helps you make the case to clients that £20 to £25 is good value.
What your rate needs to cover
Being self-employed means your hourly rate is not your take-home pay. It has to cover several things, and this is where most new self-employed carers get caught out:
Your time with the client. The hour you are actually being paid for.
Travel time between clients. Often unpaid by agencies, but very real. If you are driving 20 minutes between visits, that is time you are not earning. Your rate needs to include it.
Vehicle and fuel costs. If you drive to clients, fuel, insurance, MOT, and maintenance all come out of your earnings.
Insurance. Public liability and professional indemnity cover costs £80 to £200 per year. If you work with clients found through Gladys, you are already covered by our master policy, which can save this line entirely.
Training and DBS. Enhanced DBS renewal and ongoing training (moving and handling, first aid, safeguarding, specialist courses) typically cost from £60 to a few hundred pounds.
Holiday. You get no paid holiday as a self-employed carer. Employed carers typically get 28 days of paid leave a year, which is equivalent to around 14% of total working time. If you want to take any time off, your rate needs to include it.
Sickness. The same principle. If you are ill, no one pays you. Building a buffer into your rate is what makes self-employment sustainable.
Pension. No employer pension contributions. If you want to retire with anything, you have to pay into a pension yourself.
Tax and National Insurance. Class 2 and Class 4 NI and Income Tax come out of your profit.
Admin and invoicing. Time spent on paperwork, record-keeping, and tax returns is time you are not paid for directly.
Supplies. Do you need to provide things like PPE? Most families will have their own supplies of cleaning products and household items. But if you need any equipment specific to your role, such as aprons or gloves, you will need to cover it.
Once you add all of that up, a rate of £20 per hour on paper often works out closer to £15 per hour after costs.
How to set your rate
A practical way to set a starting rate:
Decide what annual income you need to live on. Be honest with yourself. We have a calculator on our Become a Carer page that can help.
Decide how many hours per week you want to work directly with clients. Be realistic: most self-employed carers work around 16 hours per week, but some can do as much as 70 hours.
Decide how many working weeks per year you will do (allowing for holidays and some sickness): 46 is a reasonable starting point.
Divide your target annual income by (hours per week x weeks per year) to get your target hourly rate.
Add 25 to 35% on top to cover tax, insurance, pension, training, travel, and admin.
For example, if you want to take home £30,000 a year by working 30 hours a week for 46 weeks, your target hourly rate is around £20 to £22 before overheads. Add 10%, and you arrive at £22 to £25 per hour as a realistic starting rate.
That number may feel high at first, particularly if you are used to agency pay. It is not. It is what an experienced, professional carer is worth once you do the maths properly.
Rate variations that are normal
A few things are worth building into how you present your rate:
Minimum visit length. Many self-employed carers set a minimum of one hour. Shorter visits are rarely economic once travel is factored in. At Gladys we know how beneficial minimum visits of an hour are for families, people who receive care, and carers, so you will never get paid for less.
Unsocial hours. A small uplift for evenings, weekends, and bank holidays is standard. An extra £2 to £5 per hour is reasonable if you are willing to work these times.
Specialist care. If you have training in dementia, palliative care, or post-operative recovery, your rate can reflect that.
Holiday rates. Will you charge more during bank holidays?
When to charge more and when to hold
Your rate should reflect the value of your work, not just the market average. A few questions to ask yourself:
Am I more experienced than the average carer in my area?
Do I have specialist training that families value?
Am I reliably booked out, or am I struggling to find clients?
Do existing clients ask me for extra hours, or try to cut back?
Would you change your fee structure due to client circumstances, location, or budget?
If you are booked solid and families are asking for more of your time, your rate is probably below market. If you are struggling to find clients, the rate may be too high, or the issue may be something else entirely (visibility, reviews, or area). Lowering a rate rarely solves a visibility problem, so do not reach for that lever first.
The Gladys angle
On Gladys, carers typically earn around 65% more per hour than they would at a traditional agency. Clients pay from £28.80 per hour for visiting care, and because Gladys operates as an introductory platform rather than an agency, the carer keeps the vast majority of that.
We handle the matching and introductions, then you work directly with the family on rates, hours, and scheduling. You decide what you charge. We help make sure you are not leaving money on the table. If you are still weighing up the move, our guide on how to become a self-employed carer in the UK walks through the full picture.
Find out more about working with Gladys → or get in touch to talk it through →.
Final thoughts
Setting your rate is a practical exercise, but it is also a professional one. The number you charge signals what you think your work is worth, and the rate you settle on tends to shape the kind of clients you attract.
Do not underprice yourself. Families who value continuity, experience, and professional care are usually happy to pay for them. They also tend to stay longer and treat their carer well, which is what makes this kind of work sustainable over the long run.
If you are moving from agency work, give yourself permission to charge what you are actually worth. The maths works out. And the families you end up with will almost always be better for it.
FAQs
What should I charge as a self-employed carer in the UK?
Depending on your level of experience, location, and type of service, you should be charging from £18 to £25 an hour. If you are just starting out, you might want to consider offering discounts to secure new clients. For those with more clinical experience such as former nurses, you should start your rates at £24 an hour to reflect your background.
How do I know if my rate is too high or low?
You will know your rate is too high once clients go elsewhere due to cost. Your rate is too low when your cost base outweighs the equivalent earnings from an employed role on £12.71 an hour.
Can I charge more than local agencies?
In all likelihood, no. Agencies have to cover the administrative and background operations of the business, which justifies their higher charges. With your lower cost base, it is always sensible to charge less than the equivalent agency rate while still earning meaningfully more per hour than an employed carer.
How often should I raise my rates?
Review your rates with your clients on a basis that matches the evolution of their requirements and your needs as a carer. If fuel rises (sound familiar?) start eating into your earnings, it may be time to add an extra 50p to your hourly charge to cover the uplift. Make sure you are not going backwards.
What if clients cannot afford my rate?
There are a few options for funding support such as Attendance Allowance and local authority support. Point clients towards those resources to see if they can help alleviate some of the costs. Ultimately, it is your decision whether to continue or end the working relationship.
