Mileage Claims for Care Workers: Driving Between Clients
If you drive between client homes as a care worker, most of those miles are claimable. A lot of carers don't know that. Here's how it works.
There are roughly 1.5 million care workers in England alone. A huge number of them (domiciliary carers, home care workers, community nurses) spend half their working day in the car, driving from one client's home to the next. Many of them have never claimed a penny for it.
That's money they're owed. Not a perk. Not a loophole. A legitimate tax deduction that HMRC expects people to claim. The rules are straightforward once you know them, and the amounts involved are not trivial. A carer doing 45 miles a day between clients can claim over £4,000 a year.
This guide covers the rules for domiciliary care workers specifically, whether you're self-employed, employed, or working through an agency.
The basic rule: travel between clients is business mileage
When you drive from one client's home to another client's home, that's business travel. Full stop. HMRC's definition of business travel is a journey made "wholly and exclusively for business purposes." Driving between care appointments fits that definition perfectly.
This applies whether you're visiting two clients or twelve. Every journey between client homes during your working day is a business mile.
What about the first and last journey of the day?
This is where it gets interesting, and it depends on your employment situation.
If you have no fixed office or depot
Many domiciliary care workers don't have a fixed workplace. You don't report to an office. You don't clock in at a depot. Your first appointment is at a client's home, and your last appointment ends at a different client's home. You go straight from your house to the first visit, and straight home from the last.
In this case, the journey from home to your first client is business travel. So is the journey from your last client back home. HMRC's guidance on travel expenses confirms that if you have no fixed workplace, travel to temporary workplaces (which client homes are) counts as business travel.
This is a significant point. It means every mile you drive on a working day, from the moment you leave your house to the moment you get back, is potentially claimable.
If you do have a fixed office or depot
Some care companies have an office you're expected to attend. Maybe you pick up supplies there, or start each day with a team briefing. If you regularly attend a fixed workplace, the journey between your home and that workplace is commuting, and commuting is not claimable.
But the journeys from the office to your first client, between clients, and from your last client back to the office? All business. For a deeper look at where HMRC draws the commuting line, see the guide to business mileage vs commuting.
The test is "regular attendance." If you go to the office once a week for a team meeting, that's probably not your fixed workplace; it's a temporary workplace, and the travel is claimable. If you go every morning to collect your rota, it probably is your fixed workplace, and that leg is a commute. The distinction depends on the specific arrangement. If you're unsure, ask your employer or accountant.
Employed vs self-employed: different claiming routes
The mileage rates are the same regardless of your employment status. The difference is how you claim.
Self-employed care workers
If you're registered as self-employed (you submit a Self Assessment tax return), you claim mileage as a business expense on the self-employment pages of your return. You use HMRC's simplified mileage rates: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p per mile after that.
You deduct this from your self-employment income, which reduces your taxable profit and therefore your tax bill. Simple.
Employed care workers
If you're employed (PAYE), your employer should be reimbursing you for business mileage. Many care companies pay a mileage rate, but it's often less than 45p. Some pay 25p, some pay 30p, some pay nothing at all.
If your employer pays you less than 45p per mile (or doesn't pay you anything), you can claim tax relief on the difference. This is called Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR). You claim it from HMRC using form P87 (for claims under £2,500) or a Self Assessment return (for larger claims).
For example, if you drive 8,000 business miles and your employer pays you 20p per mile, you've received £1,600. HMRC says you should have received 8,000 × 45p = £3,600. The difference is £2,000. You can claim tax relief on that £2,000. At the basic rate of 20%, that's £400 back. At 40%, it's £800.
If your employer pays you nothing for mileage (and some don't) you can claim the full 45p per mile.
Agency care workers
Agency workers fall into a grey area. Your employment status depends on your contract: you might be employed by the agency, self-employed, or somewhere in between (the "employment intermediary" rules add complexity).
If you're employed by the agency, the same rules as employed workers apply. The agency should reimburse your mileage. If they don't (or underpay), you can claim the shortfall from HMRC.
If you're genuinely self-employed and working through an agency, you claim on your Self Assessment return like any other self-employed person.
The key thing is to check your contract. If you're not sure about your status, HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool can help, though the results aren't always conclusive for care work.
What does the 45p rate cover?
A common misunderstanding: the 45p per mile rate isn't just for fuel. It's meant to cover all the costs of using your vehicle for business. That includes:
- Fuel
- Wear and tear
- Insurance
- Road tax
- Servicing and repairs
- Depreciation
This means you cannot claim the 45p rate and then also claim fuel, insurance, or servicing costs separately. It's one or the other. Either you use the flat 45p rate (simplified mileage), or you claim actual vehicle costs and apply a business-use percentage. For most care workers, the flat rate is simpler and usually better. The comparison is broken down in the guide to simplified mileage vs actual costs.
Important: If your employer reimburses you at 45p per mile, you cannot then claim anything additional on top. The 45p is the maximum tax-free amount. You only get extra relief if your employer pays less than 45p.
What records do you need to keep?
HMRC requires a mileage log that shows:
- The date of each journey
- Where you started and where you went (client names or locations)
- The purpose (e.g., "client visit: Mrs Thompson")
- The distance in miles
You need to keep these records for at least five years after the 31 January tax return deadline for that year. So records for the 2025/26 tax year need to be kept until at least 31 January 2032.
A spreadsheet works. A notebook works (if you can read your handwriting in six years' time). An app that automatically records your journeys works best, because it captures trips you'd forget to write down. For more on what HMRC actually requires, see the guide: do I need to keep a mileage log?
Worked example: a carer doing 6 home visits a day
Here's a concrete example. Sarah is a domiciliary care worker. She's self-employed and works five days a week. She has no fixed office: her schedule comes by app, and she drives straight from home to her first client each morning.
A typical day looks like this:
- Home to Client 1 (Mrs Palmer): 4 miles
- Client 1 to Client 2 (Mr Shah): 3 miles
- Client 2 to Client 3 (Mrs Donovan): 5 miles
- Client 3 to Client 4 (Mr Bridges): 2 miles
- Client 4 to Client 5 (Mrs Kowalski): 6 miles
- Client 5 to Client 6 (Mr Webb): 3 miles
- Client 6 to home: 7 miles
That's 30 miles. But she also has two longer days each week where she covers a wider area: 55 and 60 miles respectively. Her weekly average works out to about 225 miles.
Over a working year (say 48 weeks, allowing for holidays), that's 10,800 business miles.
Sarah's mileage claim
- First 10,000 miles at 45p = £4,500
- Remaining 800 miles at 25p = £200
- Total claim: £4,700
If Sarah is a basic-rate taxpayer, that £4,700 deduction saves her roughly £1,270 in tax and National Insurance. If she's a higher-rate taxpayer, the saving is closer to £1,900.
That's real money. And if Sarah wasn't tracking her miles at all (which is common among care workers) she'd be paying that in unnecessary tax every single year.
The 10,000-mile threshold matters. Sarah crosses it. The first 10,000 miles earn 45p each, but everything after that drops to 25p. Getting the split right is important: overclaiming leads to HMRC enquiries, and underclaiming means leaving money behind. For a full walkthrough of how the threshold works, see the mileage allowance worked example.
Common mistakes care workers make
Not claiming at all. This is the biggest one. Many care workers simply don't know they can claim mileage. Some assume it's only for "proper" businesses. Some think their employer handles it (even when the employer pays nothing). If you drive for work, you can claim. It's that straightforward.
Only claiming the journeys between clients, not the first and last leg. If you don't have a fixed office, the drive from home to your first client and from your last client back home are both business miles. Missing these two legs each day could mean under-claiming by 10–15 miles per day, which is over 2,000 miles a year.
Claiming fuel on top of the 45p rate. You can't do both. The 45p covers fuel. If you're claiming simplified mileage (which you almost certainly should be), do not also claim fuel receipts. That's double-dipping, and HMRC will not be amused.
Guessing the distances. "About 5 miles" isn't good enough if HMRC come knocking. Use your car's trip meter, a mapping app, or a mileage tracking app. Consistent, contemporaneous records are what HMRC wants to see.
Not keeping records long enough. HMRC can investigate your tax affairs going back several years. Throwing away your mileage log after you've filed your return is a risk. Keep everything for at least five years.
What if you've never claimed before?
If you're self-employed and you've been filing Self Assessment returns without claiming mileage, you can amend your returns for the previous four tax years. That could mean a significant refund. It's worth speaking to an accountant about this: the cost of the accountant's time will likely be a fraction of what you get back.
If you're employed and your employer hasn't been reimbursing you properly, you can claim Mileage Allowance Relief for the last four tax years using form P87 (or Self Assessment if the total exceeds £2,500).
Going forward, start tracking from today. Every business mile you record from this point on is a mile you can claim next time.
A note on zero-hours contracts
A lot of care work is done on zero-hours contracts. This doesn't change the mileage rules. If you're driving between client homes on a zero-hours contract, those miles are still business miles. Your employment status (employee vs self-employed) determines how you claim, not the type of contract.
The one complication with zero-hours work is that your mileage varies week to week. You might do 200 miles one week and 80 the next. This makes it even more important to track every journey as it happens, rather than trying to reconstruct your mileage at the end of the year.
Start claiming what you're owed
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