New scheme launched to ensure proper pay for social care workers

The government has announced the launch of a new compliance scheme that aims to ensure that social care workers are being paid properly for sleep-in shifts.

Social care employers will be able to opt into the new Social Care Compliance Scheme, which is targeted at organisations that may have incorrectly paid workers below legal minimum wage hourly rates for sleep-in shifts.

This will give them up to a year to identify what they owe to workers, supported by advice from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), with any arrears identified at the end of the self-review period needing to be settled within three months.

Social care employers who currently have a complaint against them for alleged underpayment will be encouraged to sign up to the scheme, with those that do not set to be subject to HMRC's normal enforcement approach.

A Department of Health statement said: "The scheme has been designed to help ensure workers are paid what they are owed, while also maintaining important services for people who access social care."

This follows a previous decision to waive further penalties for sleep-in shift underpayment arising before July 26th 2017, due to concerns over the joint impact that financial penalties and payment of arrears could have on the stability of the sector. 

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