In recent years there has been an exodus of teachers and doctors from South Africa but the latest migration has been people travelling to Britain to work as home carers – in spite of statistics showing that 2.7 million people drawing benefits of £74 a week (R3 200 a month) are costing Britain £7 billion a year (ITV News, February 2).

There are many agencies advertising homecare in Britain and they offer work to mature women, and even men, who want to care for the elderly or handicapped in their own homes. In November, I set out to see for myself what it is really like to be a carer. Initially I planned to work through England’s so-called summer but colleagues-to-be Martin and Kelvin, who have been carers for more than a year, advised me that there would be abundant work over the Christmas and New Year period, and it was the idea of double pay on public holidays that was the final decider. Having approached two agencies with offices in Cape Town and been accepted by one, Consultus, I was soon winging my way to England.

My first client was a 92-year-old lady in a charming village in Kent – stone-deaf and badly crippled with osteoporosis, with a twisted spine and chin on her chest. The highlight of her day, apart from mealtimes, was being pushed through the village in a wheelchair.

Having been warned that it can be very lonely, I made sure I had enough to do. Being an avid walker and explorer, I spent my two-hour breaks exploring the paths and history of the area.

One day, crossing a golf course along a bridle path, I was thinking about foxes when suddenly one crossed my path and then sauntered along next to the hedgerow. Then, lo and behold, the following morning I was sitting eating breakfast when a fox passed the picture window and walked to the bottom of the garden. The subject of fox hunting was a major item in the news at the time, reminding me of Capetonians and the tahr issue.

Another assignment was in the village of Aldeburgh, a holiday resort on the J-Lo bum of the map of England. I was excited at the prospect of seeing the sea again.

“Don’t be”, warned my sister, it’s grey, like the sky!”

Walking to the seafront on my first afternoon break I saw that she was right – blinking a few times I tried to distinguish the horizon. And as for the beach – pebbles.

I’ve been in South Africa for more than half my life and I’m proudly South African, but there’s one day when I’d rather be in England – on Christmas Day. It’s the one day of the year when families should be together, and a hot, sunny Christmas somehow does not seem right to me. In a perfect world there should be snow, freshly fallen of course. The Brits really go overboard at Christmas, some even going into huge debt. But it’s the child-sized gnomes, multi-coloured fairy lights around windows and doorways, life-sized model Santas climbing into upstairs windows or riding along rooftops, and nativity scenes adorning gardens that made me laugh aloud. Las Vegas ain’t got nothing on Britain at Christmas time – it’s the height of kitsch!

In spite of South Africa’s faults there are some things that we can still be proud of – Britain is still giving away plastic bags, and there are plastic “British roses” adorning country lanes and hedgerows. The government is planning to bring in a smoking ban in public places to combat smoke related illnesses, something we did many years ago. And if you think the banks are bad in South Africa, some bankers here have never seen a traveller’s cheque!

To be a carer requires certain attributes, among them patience (the elderly are often deaf with short memories), empathy, being a good cook, keeping to the client’s routine and having tons of resilience. I have been lucky with the people I have cared for but some carers have had it rough. One friend who came to England at the same time was sent a last-minute letter from her agency telling her she would also need to care for an incontinent dog!

Perry and Martin now rotate between four clients. Robyn, from Claremont in Cape Town has been caring for a year and is saving to travel and to study psychology with UNISA. “I’ve done the love thing and now I want to travel”, she told me.

My interview took place in Kenilworth with the agency’s representative Gaeleen Kotze, who has been caring in Britain intermittently over a five-year period. Prospective carers are asked to produce two references, police clearance certificates, an international driver’s license, two passport photographs, passport and CV. They need a UK or EU passport, an ancestral visa or a two-year working visa, which can take up to six months to obtain. Having British citizenship, I did not have to go through this process and, having been recruited, all that was left was to book my ticket. On arrival in England I visited the agency in Tonbridge, south of London where I had to pay for a CRB (Criminal Record Bureau disclosure form), the equivalent of a police clearance certificate. This takes a few days to acquire and the carer should not work until it has been obtained.

Consultus was established in 1962 by Anne Stevens who started the company in her garden shed with the aim of helping anyone, anywhere with whatever staffing help they may need, even milking a cow. It is their belief that during any period of frailty or vulnerability, people are happiest and most content in their own homes. They have between 250 and 350 clients at any given time and 400 to 1000 carers on their books. Ninety percent of clients and carers contact them by recommendation.

Few carers want to stay with the same client for more than a few weeks, whether a sweet old lady or cantankerous old man, so the company runs a complex rotational system aiming to match the needs of the client with those of the staff. In England, carers need a permanent address, a bank account and a mobile phone.

Carers have to organise their own transport and are refunded the costs at the end of the assignment when the client pays them. Food, laundry and accommodation are all paid for so most of my earnings could be banked. The pay per week can be anything from £300 to £455 (my agency’s pay started at £350).