Have overpaid nanny who is leaving. How do I handle this well? Advice from nannies and employers pls

I've been away for a few days and missed all of this, otherwise I would have made a few comments - I'll make them now in case anyone googles and comes up with this thread. I'm glad it has all worked out now for the OP.

1. Whenever you have this kind of arrangement, it is essential that the contract deals specifically with what happens at the end of the contract (and at the end of each year). If your payroll agency provided the contract and they were aware of what you were planning to do, you may have a claim against them for any losses you have incurred.

1. When you are working out how much to pay, make sure you err on the side of paying too little. For instance always assume holidays are taken on the days which would be 'long', and don't forget about bank holidays. It is much easier to pay extra if more time has been worked than it is to reduce pay if it has been less.

1. Be very careful if you are familiar with teacher's contracts and want to model a nanny's contract on the same basis - remember that a teacher works full days in term time and not in the holidays, and their leave year starts in September. So they are always 'behind' - they work for 10.5 months being paid for less work than they do so that they can be paid during the long summer holiday when they are not working. The opposite is true for child carers, particularly if they start in September - they will be 'ahead' for the whole year, being paid for the long days they won't actually work until July and August.

1. If you have this kind of contract, it is essential that you keep track each month (or each week if paid weekly) of time that has been worked and time that has been paid so that there are no surprises if anything unexpected happens.

1. If someone has had time off sick and you have paid them full pay, you can't later change your mind and say you will only pay SSP for this time (although you can correct a mistake if for example you didn't tell the payroll agency in time for them to adjust pay - but to do this fairly, you must inform the employee of the mistake as soon as you discover it, and tell them when you intend to correct it).

I don't know if this is any help to you but this is what happens at my work place which has people working annualised hours and various other patterns.

Annual leave is accumulated over time eg 2days/month, this is then counted in hours (so 48/month) and taken in hours. If someone has a letter from God then they could take all that in April at the start of financial year. Restrictions are placed upon how much annual leave can be taken at certain times so currently, June to September = 2 weeks max. Some areas cancel all a/l over Christmas.

If an employee decides to leave the organisation then they are encouraged to use up outstanding annual leave. If they have too much booked then that annual leave could be cancelled or (at mangers discretion) taken as unpaid leave. If too much annual leave has been taken and none left to cancel then either the employer could deduct from wages or the notice period could vary. So eg 48hours overtaken could extend notice period by another month.

Good to hear there has been a conclusion to this. I had been wondering how it would get resolved.

Given that this situation can occur for other employers of nannies, is there anything that can be done to help this sort of situation from not occurring? I'm not sure there is anything that can be done apart from to remind nannies on this type of agreement that leaving part-way though a year could cause a problem with salary overpayment.

tigger being nosy what was the incident? Am so very nosey!

Oh well if you've both worked out then thats great.

It can only be overpaying if on an agreed hourly rate. Teachers are not overpaid if they leave after the end of the summer holidays for example as their contract is per month for their employment- not their services per hour. They also do not have to 'pay back' holiday.
I would imagie that you are lucky if an hourly rate wasn't actually in the contract as the basis of your agreement and that the nanny is ok with the idea of overpayment. I see your point but really important what the contract actually expresses.

I think you should tell her now. IF YOU trust her enough to look after your child you should trust her enough to not leave you in the lurch. I was really hurt when I discovered my boss had given notice ages before she gave me it. She acted per our contract but it still felt like she didn't trust me to stay until it suited her for me to leave.

Is it in the contract that you pay her pcm or per hour or other? maybe I missed this bit when reading through. Teachers do not have to pay back money or get owed it like this. Although their notice period is long.

boysrock

She isnt taking the sick pay into account.

right I'm going to go against the grain here.

1)you chose to pay her sick pay instead of ssp therefore you have not overpaid her and this should not enter into your calculations. That was your decision.

2)Your nanny appears to be on annualised hours, a mutual choice, so i would argue she hasn't been overpaid from that respect either. There are only 13 weeks school holidays so this must balance out compared to 38 weeks part time?
If she has taken too many holidays up until her notice period then rather than her not being paid, (which i imagine could be disastrous for her), i would suggest she either continues to work up until her annual leave has levelled out and alters her leave date accordingly. I assume she does get paid holidays? Her current annual leave may need cancelling.

Or the other option you've already suggested that she pays you back.

Sorry I really dont think it ethical to just not pay someone without any warning. I think you both need to sit down and work out a better solution.

Unless the "incident" puts a completely different light on things..

elphabade has misunderstood too - even if the op doesn't pay the final month's salary the nanny still owes £700.

I think the op is being extremely generous when she says that she doesn't intend to reclaim this money back as legally she could.

I was in the opposite situation - I worked term time only with an annualised salary. Started in the September, was made redundant at the end of April and my boss was thinking in terms of 'well, nanny has had 6 weeks holiday already so it should work out about even' We had to sit down and work out actual amount of hours worked and what I had atually been paid vs what I would have been paid for those hours for her to see that she owed me a final payment of over £600.

Sorry, that should say underpaid during holidays

The nanny should be aware that this is the case. She will know that she is being relatively overpaid during term time and relatively overpaid during holidays. I wonder if the reason that she hasnt asked you about it is because she knows exactly what the situation is, but is hoping that that isnt the truth, IYSWIM. If she thought that she migh possibly be due any money then I think she would have asked you how much it was, as it is obvious that she would not be due a full months wage.

I think that if she had any sense she must have realised that something like this was going to happen - she realised the agreement to spread payments was based on an entire year working, therefore if that year was cut short, she may potentially have been overpaid.

Sorry Harriet and OP, I misunderstood

Dh was overpaid thought no fault of his own and it came to light after he had left the employment.

It amounted to £2000 and he had to pay it back. However this was done at a rate of £100 per month for the next two years. It was taken directly out of his bank account by direct debit and he was invoiced and sent a statement each month.

I think you should give her the option - either deduct it from her final months wages or offer her the option to pay it back at an agreed rate.

Havepatience
What you've described is not the sitaution with the OP. It is not their mistake. Yes the OP agreed to paying her this way, but the nanny should, in fact, be on top of what was agreed between herself and her employers in the contract enough to realise a potential problem could be emerging depending on at what time during the year she gives notice.

It's not a question of the OP making some kind of adminsitrative error and taking the nanny by surprise.

OP - I think the suggestion of letting the £700 go and showing her nannytax's workings is the right way forward.