True Cost of Care Calculator
Free, in-browser toolRates: April 2026, editableUpdated 11 July 2026
What this is
The true cost of a care hour is what an hour of delivered care costs your agency once every on-cost is counted, not just the carer’s pay rate. This free calculator builds that figure in your browser from one representative carer’s week: enter pay, contact hours, travel time and visits, and it adds holiday pay, employer National Insurance and pension, plus absence cover, mileage, training and overheads if you use them, then divides the weekly total by your contact hours to give a true cost per contact hour. It also checks whether unpaid travel time could pull the effective hourly rate below the National Living Wage, and can suggest a charge rate for a target margin. The April 2026 rates are editable defaults. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere, and there is no email gate.
A guide, not advice. This calculator gives estimates only; it is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Statutory rates change and your circumstances may differ. Verify current rates on GOV.UK and check with your accountant or an employment adviser before making decisions.
A typical carer's week
Enter the figures for one representative carer. The £5,000 NI threshold is applied per employee, so per-carer inputs give the most accurate result.
Default £12.71 (NLW 21+), editable; verify on GOV.UK.
Optional: refine the estimate
Leave at 0 to skip the suggested charge rate.
Rates used: April 2026 (editable)
Sources to verify: GOV.UK for the National Living Wage and employer NI thresholds; The Pensions Regulator for the auto-enrolment pension minimum; the 12.07% holiday accrual comes from 5.6 weeks’ statutory leave; and 45p/mile is the HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payment. Eligible employers may offset up to £10,500 of employer NI via the Employment Allowance; that offset is not applied here.
True cost per contact hour
£16.33
Based on £489.82 total weekly cost ÷ 30 contact hours.
What makes up the cost (per week)
- Base pay (paid working hours × rate)
- £381.30
- Holiday pay (12.07%)
- £46.02
- Employer pension (3%)
- £12.82
- Employer NI (15% above £5,000.00/yr)
- £49.68
- Total weekly cost
- £489.82
Minimum-wage travel-time check
Counting all working time (contact plus unpaid travel), the effective hourly rate is £10.52 against a National Living Wage of £12.71.
This may indicate a National Minimum Wage risk. Unpaid travel time between visits generally counts as working time, which can pull the effective rate below the legal minimum. This is not a legal verdict; seek advice from an employment adviser.
Why the true cost is higher than the pay rate
It’s easy to assume a £12.71 carer costs £12.71 an hour. In reality the wage is only one part. Employer National Insurance, pension contributions and holiday pay add on-costs of roughly a third; then travel time, mileage, training and absence cover all have to be paid for and recovered across the hours you can actually bill. The figure that matters for pricing and sustainability is the cost per contact hour, the care time you charge for, and that’s what this tool builds up, line by line, so you can see exactly where the money goes.
The travel-time check matters most. Travel between visits is generally working time for the minimum wage, so when it’s unpaid the same wage stretches over more hours and the effective rate falls. The calculator flags when that effective rate dips below the National Living Wage: a signal to take advice, not a legal verdict.
Stop estimating: track the real numbers
VircareOS records real contact hours and visit data as your carers work, so the biggest number in this calculator stops being a spreadsheet guess. Transparent pricing, a free family app, and a self-serve start, no sales call.
About a minute to set up. No card required.