MilometryCommunity care: forty short visits and nobody counting
Care workers and community nurses cover serious mileage in five-minute hops, and a lot of it never gets recorded properly.
Información general, no asesoramiento. Redactado como información general y correcto según nuestro conocimiento a 27 de septiembre de 2026. Las normas fiscales cambian y su aplicación depende de tus circunstancias. Esto no es asesoramiento fiscal, jurídico ni financiero: consulta a un contable, un asesor fiscal o la administración tributaria antes de basarte en ello.
Updated 27 September 2026: the car and van rate rose from 45p to 55p for journeys from 6 April 2026 (announced 21 May 2026). Figures below use 55p.
Domiciliary care and community nursing produce a driving pattern almost no other job does: dozens of very short journeys, tight schedules, and no natural pause in which to write anything down.
The mileage is larger than it feels
Twelve visits a day averaging three miles between them is 36 miles. Over 220 working days that is roughly 7,900 miles a year. Comparable to a sales rep, accumulated three miles at a time.
At the approved rates (55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year, 25p after) that is an approved amount of around £4,300. Recorded as "about 30 miles a day", it becomes a round number that is both hard to defend and almost certainly wrong.
What a typical round adds up to
| Visits per day | Miles between visits | Daily miles | Annual (220 days) | Approved amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 2 | 16 | 3,520 | £1,936 |
| 12 | 3 | 36 | 7,920 | £4,356 |
| 15 | 4 | 60 | 13,200 | £6,300 |
| 18 | 5 | 90 | 19,800 | £7,950 |
The last two rows cross the 10,000-mile threshold, so the totals are banded (55p up to 10,000, 25p after) rather than a flat 55p.
What an underpaying employer costs you
On 7,920 business miles, where the approved amount is £4,356 (figures are estimates for an employee):
| Employer pays | You receive | Shortfall | Relief at 20% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45p | £3,564 | £792 | £158 |
| 35p | £2,772 | £1,584 | £317 |
| 30p | £2,376 | £1,980 | £396 |
| 25p | £1,980 | £2,376 | £475 |
| Nothing | £0 | £4,356 | £871 |
Relief at 40% is double the last column. It can be claimed for the current tax year plus the previous four, through Self Assessment or a P87.
Where the rules bite
The first and last journeys. If you have a base you attend (an office, a depot, a clinic), travel from home to it is ordinary commuting. If you go from home directly to your first client and home from your last, the position is different and often more favourable.
Which of those you are in is a question about your contract and working pattern, not about how it feels. It is worth establishing once, properly, because it affects two journeys every working day.
Reimbursement below the approved rate. Many employers in the sector pay a per-mile rate lower than HMRC's approved figure. Where that happens, the employee can claim tax relief on the difference through Self Assessment or a P87, and not everyone does.
On 7,900 miles, an employer paying 30p against an approved 55p leaves relief due on roughly £1,975 of shortfall. For a basic-rate taxpayer that is around £395 of tax back, for filling in a form.
Passenger payments. If you carry a colleague on a work journey, your employer can pay you up to 5p a mile for each one, tax free. Paying it is optional, and if they do not pay it there is no tax relief to claim for it.
The recording problem, honestly
Nobody is going to stop between a medication round and a personal care visit to log three miles. Any system that depends on that will fail, and the resulting log will be a reconstruction.
Automatic recording is the only realistic answer here. Milometry notices you setting off, records the drive, and stops when you have been still for a few minutes, so forty visits arrive as forty journeys with real distances, and the whole day sorts in seconds afterwards.
Tagging the regular addresses means most of it classifies itself.
Sources
- Travel, mileage and fuel rates and allowances (HMRC)
- Claim tax relief for your job expenses: vehicles you use for work (HMRC)
- 490: Tax and National Insurance contributions for employee travel (HMRC)
- Ordinary commuting and private travel: 490 chapter 3 (HMRC)
- Increasing mileage rates (HM Treasury and HMRC policy paper)
General information, not tax advice. Whether you have a permanent workplace is fact-specific and matters here: take advice.
