Charities may close in £400m back pay bill for carers

CARE charities will have to close if they are forced to pay members for hours when they are asleep, Theresa May is warned today.

Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, will meet the Prime Minister amid concerns about a union-backed High Court action to force charities to pay care workers – even if they are asleep. Charities have been told they owe staff up to six years of back money for not paying them when they sleep overnight at the home of a vulnerable person.

The legal dispute – which is heard in the Appeal Court today – concerns overnight care for people with learning disabilities and some children, requiring a carer to sleep overnight. A court ruled that charities should pay staff for the hours they stay in homes, rather than just when they are awake.

Writing in The Telegraph online Jan Tregelles, the chief executive of Mencap which provides care for 5,000 people, warned it would need £20million to meet the bill, adding: “The stakes are high – if I lose, I have to find £20million. The costs for the whole sector are over £400million and some charities and care providers will fold.”

Ms Allen said: “The Prime Minister knows this is a complex issue ... but I am confident she will outline a way forward when we meet today. The good news is that providers have said they can work with local authorities to find a sustainable funding solution going forward. However the £400 million of back pay now due, would be financially catastrophic.”

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, which is leading the challenge, said it was fair that the staff were recompensed because they had been “paid less than the legal minimum for their work”.