Hirers have a legal responsibility to make sure that their workers remain safe and healthy while doing their job.

The Health and Safety Executive helps workers understand how they can stay safe and well at work.

Their website provides information for all workers on their rights and responsibilities in relation to health and safety issues at work.

A healthcare worker is any worker whose job role impacts or influences the health or care of any person, including but not limited to, nurses, doctors, social workers and pharmacists.

If you have concerns about a care provider please report these to the Care Quality Commission.

You can find information on pay, tax and benefit issues that face care workers on the LITRG website.

HMRC are the UK’s tax authority. They are responsible for many things like income tax and National Insurance (including enforcing employer compliance with the Pay As You Earn system and the National Minimum, Wage rules).

The homepage for HMRC is here on GOV.UK. It links to tax guidance and HMRC publications, including leaflets/forms and their services.

If you need help getting through to HMRC or need extra support, see LITRG’s website.

TaxAid is a UK charity providing free tax advice to people who have a tax problem, are struggling to deal with HMRC and cannot afford to pay a professional adviser. The service is independent and confidential. Their website is here.

Holiday leave (also known as annual leave) is paid time taken off work. Employees and ‘workers’ are entitled to holiday leave and pay.

To discover some information on your rights to holiday entitlement, visit GOV.UK.

GOV.UK also has information on the basics of holiday pay.

You can calculate your holiday entitlement on GOV.UK.

You can find more detailed information about holiday entitlement and how it should be calculated for workers with irregular working patterns here on GOV.UK.

Guidance on how to calculate holiday pay for workers whose hours and/or pay are not fixed can also be found here on GOV.UK.

If you are unsure as to whether your engager is dealing with your holiday correctly in your particular circumstances, you could seek further clarification as to your position from ACAS.

Because of problems inherent in calculating holiday leave and pay for very short term agency workers, some workers used to get extra pay on top of their hourly rate instead of being given paid holiday. However, this ‘rolled up’ system has now been deemed unlawful. If you are not on a rolled up system and you leave an agency or umbrella company having taken fewer holidays than you are entitled to, you should be paid in lieu of the untaken holiday. You should also ask the agency or umbrella company to confirm the circumstances in which you may lose the holiday pay (for example, if you do not request it before the end of the holiday year).