Sleep-in Pay in 2026: A Guide for UK Care Providers

The Payroll Lab

1 day ago

3 min read

Sleep-in shifts are one of the most misunderstood areas of care payroll. Get them wrong and you risk HMRC minimum wage arrears, penalties of up to 200% of the underpayment and being publicly named. Get them right and you protect your staff, your margins and your CQC reputation. Here is what care providers need to know for 2026/27.

What counts as a sleep-in shift?

A sleep-in is where a worker is required to stay overnight at the workplace, is provided with suitable facilities to sleep, and is only expected to wake if they are needed. This is different from a waking night, where the worker is expected to be awake and working throughout. Waking nights are working time for every hour and must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage (NMW) or National Living Wage (NLW) for the whole shift.

What the law says: the Mencap ruling

In Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake (2021), the Supreme Court ruled that a sleep-in worker who is simply present and permitted to sleep is not doing time work for minimum wage purposes. GOV.UK guidance confirms that only the time the worker is actually awake for the purposes of working counts towards the minimum wage calculation.

In practice, this means:

Hours asleep on a genuine sleep-in do not have to be paid at NMW or NLW.
Any time the worker is woken and working (for example, supporting a resident at 3am) must be paid at least the minimum wage.
If the worker is expected to be awake, it is not a sleep-in. It is a waking night and every hour counts.

2026/27 minimum wage rates

From 1 April 2026 the rates are:

National Living Wage (21 and over): £12.71 per hour
18 to 20: £10.85 per hour
Under 18 and apprentices: £8.00 per hour

How most care providers pay sleep-ins

Most providers pay a flat sleep-in allowance for the night, commonly in the £40 to £80 range, plus an hourly rate for any time the worker is woken to work. That is lawful, but only if the woken hours are recorded and paid correctly.

Five mistakes we see in care payroll

Not recording woken time. If carers are disturbed during a sleep-in, you need a simple log of when and for how long. Without it you cannot prove compliance.
Calling a waking night a sleep-in. If the rota or the care plan expects the worker to be awake, the whole shift is working time.
Forgetting the pay reference period. Minimum wage is checked on average pay across the whole pay period. Unpaid training, travel time between domiciliary visits and deductions for uniform can pull the average below NLW.
Not updating rates on 1 April. Flat allowances and woken-hour rates set years ago often fall behind the current NLW.
Holiday pay on irregular hours. Sleep-in allowances and regular overtime may need to be included in holiday pay, especially for irregular-hours and part-year workers.

A simple compliance checklist

Written policy defining sleep-ins and waking nights.
Rotas that match the care plan.
A disturbance log completed every sleep-in shift.
Woken hours paid at no less than the current NLW.
A minimum wage check on every pay run, not just once a year.
Clear payslips that show the sleep-in allowance separately.

How The Payroll Lab helps

We are an accountant-led payroll bureau that specialises in care providers. We build sleep-in allowances, woken-hour pay, travel time and NLW checks into every pay run, so you stay compliant and your staff are paid correctly first time.

Not sure your sleep-in pay is compliant? Book a free Payroll Health Check at thepayroll-lab.com/book-a-call and we will review your pay rates, sleep-in approach and minimum wage position, then send you a written report with no obligation.

This article is general guidance for UK employers and is not legal advice. Sources: GOV.UK National Minimum Wage rates; GOV.UK Calculating the minimum wage: working hours; Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake [2021] UKSC 8.