Home care is an expensive service with traditional providers charging anything between €24 and €27 per hour. Only about €11 to €13 of that finds its way into a carer’s pocket.
The high cost of home care for families and the low rewards paid to carers, means that there is a real incentive for families and carers to come to informal cash arrangements. This is especially so where extensive amounts of care and support are needed in the case of overnights and live in type care.
While there is no hard data on the cash market for care, it is widely acknowledged that it is significant. The cash market results in lost earnings for the exchequer but more importantly it puts both families and carers in vulnerable positions leaving carers open to exploitation and families open to significant fines and costs if caught out.
At Home Care Direct we are addressing this problem by enabling families and carers to work directly in a fully tax compliant manner. We ensure care is affordable for families and that the rewards are attractive for carers, so that there is no incentive to resort to cash payments.
For carers we remove the hassle of working for yourself by handling all their invoicing, payments, administration and tax returns allowing them concentrate on managing clients and delivering great care.
For families we give them direct access to great carers who have been interviewed, reference checked and Garda vetted and who are motivated to deliver high quality care.
We also provide insurance cover for carers and families to the levels required by the HSE.
We have seem many families and their carers who previously had an informal cash arrangement, contact us and subsequently move over to our platform for their piece of mind and at no extra cost thanks to the significant tax relief available and the great value care and support available through working directly.
It is in everyone's interest that we begin to tackle the informal cash market for care, bringing all care out into the sunlight where it can flourish.