Your rights as a self-employed carer: what you are entitled to and what you need to know

Self-employment offers real advantages, flexibility, autonomy, and better earnings. But it also comes with a different set of rights and protections compared to employment. Understanding this clearly from the start will help you make informed decisions and avoid unpleasant surprises.

Employment status: employee, worker, or self-employed

In UK law, there are three employment statuses: employee, worker, and self-employed, and your status determines what rights you have.

Employees have the most comprehensive rights, unfair dismissal protection, statutory sick pay, maternity pay, redundancy pay, and more.

Workers have some rights, including the National Minimum Wage, paid holiday (5.6 weeks per year), and auto-enrolment into a pension, but fewer than employees.

Self-employed individuals have the fewest statutory rights. You are not entitled to sick pay, holiday pay, or a minimum hourly rate from your clients. You manage your own tax. You can take on or turn down work as you choose.

What self-employed carers are entitled to

While you do not have employee rights in relation to clients, you do have rights as a person running a business and as a citizen:

Health and safety, clients and the environments you work in must still meet health and safety standards. You should not be asked to work in unsafe conditions.

Equality Act protections, you cannot be discriminated against on grounds of age, sex, race, disability, religion, or sexual orientation when seeking work or delivering it.

Contracting rights, any agreement you enter into is legally binding. If a client or platform fails to pay you what was agreed, you have legal recourse through the small claims court.

Data protection, anyone holding personal data about you must comply with GDPR.

What to include in your agreement with clients

Because you are self-employed, your protections largely come from what you agree in writing with clients. A good agreement should include:

The scope of care (what you will and will not do). The rate, how often you will invoice, and when payment is due. Notice period for either party to end the arrangement. What happens if a visit is cancelled. Confidentiality expectations. How disputes will be handled.

Never rely on verbal agreements for ongoing care arrangements.

Sick pay and income protection

As a self-employed person, you do not receive statutory sick pay (SSP). If you are unable to work due to illness or injury, you have no automatic income protection. This is one of the most significant practical differences from employment.

There are two main ways to address this:

Income protection insurance, pays a percentage of your income (typically 50 to 70%) if you are unable to work due to illness or injury. Policies vary significantly in cost and coverage. It is strongly advisable to hold this.

Emergency savings, many self-employed people aim to maintain three to six months' worth of expenses as a cash buffer.

Holiday pay

You are not entitled to paid holiday from clients. However, your rate should factor in the periods when you will not be working. A rough calculation: if you want four weeks of holiday per year, that is roughly 10% of working time. Building this into your rate, rather than treating it as lost income, is a more sustainable approach.

Managing client cancellations

Short-notice cancellations are an occupational hazard for self-employed carers. It is reasonable to include a cancellation policy in your agreement, for example, 50% of the visit rate for cancellations with less than 24 hours' notice. Not all clients will accept this, but raising it upfront is professional and sets expectations clearly.

Pensions

You are not auto-enrolled into a pension as a self-employed person. But contributing to a pension is still highly advisable, contributions attract tax relief of 20% (or 40% for higher-rate taxpayers), which means the government is effectively topping up your savings.

A simple private pension (such as a Nest, Vanguard, or PensionBee account) can be set up in minutes and contributions made flexibly.

Knowing when employment status might be questioned

The rules around employment status, particularly the concept of 'false self-employment', are actively scrutinised by HMRC. Generally, you are genuinely self-employed if you: can send a substitute to do the work, take financial risk (for example, you can make a loss), work for multiple clients, and are not under the direct control of one organisation.

If your situation starts to look more like employment, for example, if one client accounts for all your income and dictates exactly how and when you work, it is worth reviewing your status with an accountant or tax adviser.