Amanda Nottingham drives between 100 and 300 miles a week in her own car to visit elderly clients across South Yorkshire. The 42-year-old care worker said she spends between £75 and £100 per week filling her tank — up to £400 a month — and that the 35p per mile her employer pays does not cover the full cost, according to an interview with BBC News.
“I think it should be a necessity that all carers get paid for their travel and their fuel,” Nottingham said. “We’re doing a job to keep people’s loved ones in their own homes, making sure they feel special and cared for.”
The price of petrol and diesel has risen sharply since the start of the Iran war in February. Unleaded petrol is 26.7p per litre more expensive than it was three months ago, according to the RAC’s Fuel Watch.
The financial squeeze falls on workers who form a large share of the care sector’s travel infrastructure. The Homecare Association, which represents care companies, said four out of five care workers drive their own vehicles for work and that 60% of providers pay mileage at 40p per mile or below.
Dr Jane Townson, the association’s chief executive, said many care companies could not afford to raise their mileage rates to the government’s recommended level. “Most employers pay mileage, but not many of them can manage to get to the 55p level because the income they receive from councils and integrated care boards in the NHS just is not enough,” Townson said.
The association calculated that the minimum cost of providing homecare in 2026-27 is £34.42 per hour. Councils and the NHS pay about £24 per hour on average, Townson said — a gap of roughly £10 per hour that employers cannot close.
In May, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the tax-free mileage rate workers can claim would rise by 10p to 55p per mile. But the Homecare Association’s data suggests most care employers remain well below that threshold.
Dan Archer, chief executive of Visiting Angels in Sheffield, said he pays Nottingham and other carers for their travel time between clients and is considering raising the mileage rate following the Chancellor’s announcement. But he said too many care workers across the country receive no compensation for travel time, which risks pushing their effective hourly rate below the national minimum wage.
“Pay injustice brings things like cost of living pressures into sharp relief,” Archer said. “At the moment, the system is being propped up on the goodwill of carers and they are the last people who should be subsiding this.”
Archer said that whether the funding comes from central government or local government, “it is fundamentally wrong that at the moment care workers are meeting that cost by subsidising care packages themselves.”
The financial pressure could push more workers out of the sector. Townson said some care workers may become unwilling to travel longer distances, leaving people in remote areas struggling to find care. “Some of the impacts might be that care workers are unwilling to travel longer distances, so some people in more remote places may struggle to find care,” she said.
A government spokesperson said the government had extended the 5p fuel duty cut until the end of the year, increased the recommended mileage rates for tax-free claims, and was delivering “the first ever Fair Pay Agreement for carers — backed by £500m.” The spokesperson said care workers would receive “one of the biggest upgrades in their pay, rights and conditions in a generation” during the current Parliament, alongside minimum wage changes and new measures in the Employment Rights Act.
Nottingham said the mileage payment from her employer was a “massive help,” but that the shortfall still creates financial strain. “If companies are not giving fuel allowance or travel allowance, it’s not an incentive to keep your staff there,” she said.