Care worker card

It’s a digital card that recognises social care and childcare, play and early years workers in Wales as key workers and provides access to various benefits. It’s not a registration card.

Anyone who’s employed in a paid care role in Wales. This includes those working in:

• social care
• childcare, play and early years
• social work students
• childminders
• other roles, such as personal assistants or foster carers.

You don’t need to be registered with us to get a card. You can sign up for the card regardless of your working pattern or how many hours you work. For example, if you’re a paid care worker on a zero-hours contract, you can sign up to get a card.

Childcare, play and early years workers

If you work in childcare, play or early years, you can sign up for the card if you:

• work in a childcare or playwork setting that’s registered with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)
• usually work in a childcare or playwork setting that’s registered with CIW, but are now working in a local authority hub
• work as a Flying Start worker or with any other early intervention service for a local authority, charity or third sector organisation, where you have to travel outside your home.

*This doesn’t include youth workers.

There are a wide range of general discounts available to you on the Discounts for Carers website. These vary from shopping discounts such as fashion, health and fitness, electricals and food and drink, to travel, motoring and insurance. All you need to do to access these discounts is sign up on their website with a valid email address.

A cashback card from Discounts for Carers: 

You can use your care worker card to prove you work in the care sector in Wales to apply for a cashback card on the Discounts for Carers website. You can use this to get cashback on purchases from 35 retailers.

You don’t need to pay when you apply for the cashback card, but you’ll need to top it up with £5.

Once you’ve had the cashback card for a year, £2.99 will be taken from the balance you have on your card. This will happen every year.

You can find information about other costs on the Discounts for Carers website.

The cards are issued in a controlled and secure way, and we keep a record of every care worker who’s downloaded the card.

If you use the card to get benefits from retailers, you should be prepared to show photo ID, such as a driving licence or a workplace pass, with your card, so they can check your identity.

Go to the care worker card sign-up page, where you’ll be asked some questions.

If you’re:

• registered with us: you can complete the process by signing into your SCWonline account
• not registered with us: you’ll need to tell us some basic details about yourself.

After you’ve completed the sign-up process, you’ll be sent an email with instructions telling you how to download the card into your smartphone wallet. Your digital card will be in your wallet and ready to use in minutes.

1. On your smartphone or your laptop or desktop computer, go to the email confirming you’ve signed up to the care worker card. Click the link to save the card to your wallet. You’ll now see an image of your care worker card, take a screenshot of the whole image to save it to your device.
2. Go to the Discounts for Carers website 
3. Sign-up for the Discounts for Carers website by answering a few simple questions.
4. On the Discounts for Carers homepage, go to the section about the cashback card.
5. Complete the form on the sign-up page for the cashback card. You’ll then go to a screen that says ‘confirm your carer status’. To do this, upload the screenshot of your care worker card that you took at the beginning as proof that you work in care.

After registering for the card, you should receive your card within seven working days but allow up to 14 working days for your card to arrive before attempting to contact Discounts for Carers. You can find more information about the card here.

On an iPhone:

• press the home button and the power button at the same time
• on models without a home button, press the power button and the volume down button.

On an Android phone:

• press the power button and the volume down button at the same time
• if this doesn’t work, try pressing the power button and the home button at the same time or try swiping your hand to the left or right across the screen
• alternatively, check your phone’s user manual, which can usually be found on your phone or via your phone’s manufacturer.

You can apply for a cashback card on the Discounts for Carers website without a smartphone if you have an email address (personal or business) and access to the internet.

You’ll need to download an image of your care worker card on your laptop or desktop computer. You can do this by:

On a Windows laptop or desktop:

• Save a full-screen screenshot: Windows Key + PrtScn
• Save a screenshot of a single window: Windows Key + Alt + PrtScn

On a Mac:

• Save a full-screen screenshot: Command + Shift + 3
• Save a screenshot of single window: Command + Shift + 4, press the Space key, then click on the window you want to capture.
• Save a screenshot of a selection: Command + Shift + 4, then select the area you want to capture with your mouse cursor.

If you can’t download your card, contact us at careworkercard@socialcare.wales

If you have a question orcan't find what you are looking for, get in touch with us.

If your question is about Discounts for Carers’ offers or the cashback card, get in touch with Discounts for Carers.