The true cost of a £15 an hour cleaner: insurance, DBS, and the maths nobody shows you
Operator breakdown of where every pound of an hourly rate actually goes, line by line.
I founded Hertfordshire Cleaners in 2017 after a decade running facilities for two Hatfield offices. Every quarter I see leaflets through doors offering domestic cleaning at £14 an hour. Every quarter a customer rings to ask why our rate is higher. The honest answer takes 200 words and a calculator, so here it is.
I will use a £15 an hour rate as the example because that is the most common low-end quote we see in 2026. The maths is the same shape for £14 or £16, only the survivor at the bottom changes.
Where every pound of a £15 hour actually goes
- Cleaner gross pay floor: £12.21 (National Living Wage, April 2026, over-21)
- Employer NIC at 13.8% above the £9,100 threshold: £1.10
- Holiday pay accrual at 12.07%: £1.47
- Employer pension at 3% (auto-enrolment): £0.37
- Public liability insurance, per billable hour: £0.45
- Vehicle, fuel, congestion: £0.95
- Products, equipment, replacement: £0.25
- Training, DBS amortisation, uniform: £0.20
- Scheduling software, payment processing: £0.30
- Total cost floor per hour: £17.30
Every quote below £17 an hour is a vote against one of the cleaner's protections. Pick which one you are happy to remove.
What gets cut when the rate is below the floor
Five things get cut, almost always in this order. Pension first (the cleaner is paid as self-employed even when they are not). Then insurance (a single annual policy is replaced with a thin per-job product or nothing). Then holiday pay (folded into the rate, which is unlawful but rarely challenged). Then training. Then DBS.
HMRC has been clear since the 2020 IR35 reforms that a cleaner working fixed hours under company direction is an employee, not a contractor. Misclassification fines start at £1,000 per worker. The 2026 update to the Employment Rights Bill made the test stricter, not looser.
Where an individual works set hours under company direction and uses company products, employment status applies regardless of the contract label.
Where the honest margin lives
Our 2026 standard rate is £21 an hour. Take off the £17.30 cost floor and there is £3.70 left for company overhead. That covers office rent, my salary, the ops manager, marketing, accountancy, and a 6 to 8 percent net margin. There is no fat in the model. There never has been at this end of the market.
What this means for your next quote
If a company quotes below £18 an hour, ask them to walk you through their cost floor. The honest ones can do it in three minutes. The ones who cannot have either misclassified their cleaners or are running uninsured. Either way it is your house and your problem when it goes wrong.
A 5-step vetting plan
- 1Ask whether cleaners are employed or self-employed. Insist on PAYE for any regular fixed-hours work.
- 2Ask for a copy of the public liability insurance certificate, current and naming the company.
- 3Ask for the DBS policy in writing, including who pays for renewals.
- 4Ask the cleaner's hourly pay rate (not the rate you pay). It should be at or above £12.21 in 2026.
- 5Ask for a sample contract and check for unlawful rolled-up holiday pay clauses.
What to watch through the rest of 2026
Two things are tightening. The Employment Rights Bill changes coming into force from October will add fines for misclassification at the company level rather than per-worker. And the HMRC test for who counts as a worker is being applied retrospectively in the cleaning sector, with backdated NIC bills landing on companies that paid cleaners as contractors through 2024 and 2025. Expect a wave of consolidation in the under-£18 segment by Q1 2027.
Quick questions, straight answers
- Where does a £15 an hour rate actually go?
- Wage, NIC, holiday, pension, insurance, vehicle, products, training, software, and overhead. On a £15 rate the cleaner takes home roughly £8.10 gross, which is below the legal minimum for over-21s in 2026.
- Why does insurance cost so much per hour?
- Public liability for cleaning work in domestic homes runs £450 to £900 a year per cleaner, depending on claim history. Spread over 1,800 billable hours that is 25p to 50p per hour, and that is before professional indemnity for tenancy work.
- Is self-employment a way to keep rates low?
- Sometimes legitimately, often not. HMRC's IR35 rules are clear that a cleaner who works fixed hours under company direction is an employee, not self-employed. Misclassification fines start at £1,000 per case.
Founded the company in 2017 after a decade managing facilities for two FTSE 250 offices in Hatfield and Stevenage.
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