How Reducing Agency Spend With EWA Can Fund Itself Several Times Over
Quick answer: Agency spend is the single biggest controllable cost in care providers' budgets. Offering Earned Wage Access (also known as On-Demand Pay) gives staff a reason to pick up extra shifts and overtime instead of leaving gaps for agency workers. The resulting agency spend reduction typically covers the cost of the benefit several times over, making it a self-funding solution rather than an added expense.
For care providers, agency staff are often the most expensive line item on the budget, and the one with the most room for improvement. Every shift filled by an agency worker instead of a permanent staff member costs more, disrupts continuity of care, and chips away at margins that are already tight. Yet many providers still treat agency reliance as an unavoidable cost of doing business, rather than a solvable problem.
Why Is Agency Spend So High in the Care Sector?
Rota gaps happen. Staff call in sick, take leave, or shifts simply go unfilled because nobody wants the extra hours. When that happens, providers turn to agency staff to plug the gap; a quick fix, but a costly one. Agency workers can cost significantly more per hour than permanent staff, and that premium adds up fast across a rota with dozens of shifts a week.
The real issue isn't that shifts go unfilled. It's that current staff often have little financial incentive to pick up extra hours. Overtime pay lands weeks later, on the same monthly or four-weekly schedule as everyone else's wages. For many care workers living pay cheque to pay cheque, waiting a month for the reward of an extra shift simply isn't worth the immediate hassle.
How Does On-Demand Pay Encourage Staff to Cover Shifts?
Earned Wage Access lets employees access wages they've already earned, before the scheduled payday. Instead of waiting weeks to see the benefit of an extra shift, staff can access those earnings within days, sometimes hours, of completing the work.
This changes the calculation for care workers deciding whether to pick up overtime. An extra shift now comes with a fast, tangible reward, rather than a delayed one buried in next month's payslip. That immediacy makes staff considerably more likely to say yes to covering a gap, which means fewer shifts need to be handed to agencies in the first place.
Providers like Level FT offer On-Demand Pay as a straightforward add-on to existing payroll systems, without requiring providers to change how or when they run payroll. Staff simply access a portion of their earned wages through an app, and the amount is reconciled automatically at the next pay run.
Does On-Demand Pay Really Pay for Itself?
For most care providers, yes. The cost of offering Earned Wage Access is typically a flat subscription fee. Set that against the hourly premium paid for agency staff, and the maths tends to work strongly in the provider's favour.
Consider a care home that currently fills five shifts a week with agency staff at a premium of £8–£10 per hour above the standard rate. If On-Demand Pay convinces internal staff to cover even three of those five shifts instead, the savings on agency premiums alone can outweigh the entire cost of running the benefit for the whole staff base, not just the employees who use it.
This is why the reduction in agency spend often funds Earned Wage Access several times over. The benefit doesn't just cover its own cost. It actively contributes to the bottom line, while also giving staff a meaningful improvement to their financial wellbeing.
What Should Care Providers Do Next?
Reducing agency spend doesn't require a complete overhaul of how a care provider manages its workforce. It requires giving staff a genuine reason to say yes to the shifts that would otherwise go to an agency. On-Demand Pay does exactly that, by closing the gap between doing the work and being paid for it.
Providers considering the switch should start by reviewing how much is currently spent on agency staff each month, and how many of those shifts could realistically be covered internally with the right incentive in place. From there, comparing that cost against the price of an Earned Wage Access solution makes the return on investment easy to see.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Earned Wage Access?
Earned Wage Access, also known as On-Demand Pay, allows employees to withdraw a portion of wages they've already earned before their official payday, rather than waiting for the next scheduled pay run.
Is On-Demand Pay difficult to set up alongside existing payroll?
No. Providers such as Level FT are designed to integrate with existing payroll systems, so care providers don't need to change their existing pay schedule or processes to offer the benefit.
Who benefits most from On-Demand Pay?
Care providers with high agency spend and staff who live pay cheque to pay cheque benefit most, since the immediate access to earned wages directly incentivises staff to cover extra shifts.