Advice re wage for AuPair/Mother's Help/Nanny

I don't understand what the tax issue is. If you pay her say £110 per week your tax bill will still be very low. If money is an issue, I would give notice to the nursery and put that money towards an increased nanny salary.

HMRC: PAYE Basics
If paying less than £700 a month Gross, then see Simplified PAYE

Millarkie - you didn't dream it, it's in the Simplified PAYE link above.
"If it's their only job and you pay them at or over the LEL but below the Earnings Threshold (ET) for NICs - £110 a week or £476 a month (2009-10) - you won't have to operate PAYE on their earnings but you'll have to keep a record of their personal details, their National Insurance number and the amount you pay them."
LEL is £95 a week or £412 a month (2009-10)

Is there some reg that says you have to keep records but not pay any NI/tax between something (?85) and £95 per week (or did I dream that one?)

Threshold for PAYE and NI employer registration is £95 per week.

If you want a comparable, my au pair looks after the children 8-8.20am and 3.30-6pm, walks the dog and does 30mins to a maximum of 1 hour housework per weekday..she gets paid £85 pocket money, plus use of car including fuel, gym membership, mobile phone and £10 a month credit, 16-24 railcard. My children are at primary school and are relatively easy to look after compared to younger ones. She had a years experience as a live-in nanny before she came to us.
She does have au pair friends who are earning less although most get at least £75 or doing more strenuous jobs, but most of those are looking for new host families.
And do remember that if you are paying 'au pair money' whatever the job title you will most likely end up with someone with english as a second language and that's not ideal for children who are still learning to talk.

sorry crossed posts about what happens when children at nursery - if you def only make 5 days, ie have weekends off, then hopefully you will find someone for £90

sounds to me you want a slave - someone to work 13/14days

you say you need/want someone 35hrs a week - but need 11.5hrs for 3 days (tue, thur+fri - as only one is at nursery on friday) and then 8ish - 6.30 the other 2 days both are at nursery 9-5 as well as sat and every other sunday

IF you are not about, ie at work/appointments etc, then the position is mainly sole charge and IF your chiuldren were ill then who would be looking after them/picking up from nursery?

i think you are looking at much more than £80 a week

sounds like you need a nanny 3 days a week plus help on a mon/wed before/after nursery pick up

Just a quick one, but we pay our Australian AP/Mother's help £150 pw for 35 hrs (we have registered as employers etc etc).

She is a trained nursery nurse at home and has sole charge of my 23 month old for around 4 hrs a day as well as doing school and pre school drop offs and pick ups.

We found her through AP world.

I agree that it's not a standard au pair role.. It's a live in nanny role and you will be very lucky to find someone who has the skillls to cope with such young children, who can whole days sole charge and will work 13 out of 14 days without paying them a nanny wage. And if you find someone who will do it, the chances are that they will leave for a better paid job asap

You are right to say "home help/aupair/nanny whatever" as all these job titles are technically the same thing UK employment law wise these days.

I feel you are expecting a lot of someone unqualified and inexperienced in the care of young children. Though you do say things like "would assist" which implies you are still at home then but you then go on to say "when I return from work".
So I think this person will essentially have responsibility for your children from say 7.30am (or whatever time you leave home) until 6.30pm Monday-Friday plus Saturday 8-12 (are you at work then, or around at home?) and a few hours on alternate Sunday's.
So it's far more like 62 hours a week.
While your children will be at nursery some of that time, that isn't any different to having a nanny care for children who attend pre-school/nursery sessions and/or school.
While your children are at nursery, who would be on call if they were ill? Would you expect your nanny to collect your child even though they are essentially off-duty?

I feel there are issues with time-off. There don't appear to be 2 full days when your employee is not doing any work at all.
Weekly Rest - 24 hours clear of work each week. 48 hours clear of work each fortnight.
While it will probably be necessary for your employee to opt out of working time regulations (if opting out is still permitted) I do feel that you should try to comply with as much of it as possible... most people would get 24 hours clear of work a week.

When would you be expecting the laundry and ironing to be done exactly? Best in my view to be done when 1 year old is in nursery - so your employee isn't really off work when your 1 year old is in nursery... they will still have some household duties plus I suspect be on call.

National Minimum Wage does not apply for live-in jobs, so there isn't anything stopping you from offering less than £95 a week (plus full board and lodgings). However I do wonder if anyone would do the job, if they would stay very long once in it.

I'm not sure how much paid holiday to give.
5.6 weeks paid holiday is the statutory minimum currently in the UK. Basic info

Hi HalleBerryLookalike..

Another night owl like me... Night off tonight but I can never sleep until at least 3am..!

My first impressions are that you should revise the pay upwards quite a bit as even if done on a pro-rata basis, 35 hours at the same rate is just over 90 pounds.. but you are looking for someone with experience of a young infant so will be someone who is either trsined & qualified from another country who wants to come and learn English, or who is here already and au paired with a family for a year or so and is looking for more responsibility and hence more pay. You are also looking for someone to do some hours of work on 13 days out of every 14..

An au pair should have two free days each week so the role won't be that popular with many people.

On the car front then it depends where you live. If you live fairly off the urban track then she would need a car to be able to get out and about.. So the car use and fuel provided may not be looked upon as a necessity rather than a benefit..

Speak with an agency and they will probably advise that an au pair is not recommended for a 1 year old, and theregore candidates who are qualified/skilled will be looking for a higher wage.

Regarding police checks - agencies should do this as a matter of course. When you speak to an agency ask them to find out all they can about the circumstances of the candidates before you interview them. It's always good to know a little background before talking to them. I used to do it all myself but got let down too many times by time wasters. The agency I've been using for the last few years usually give great feedback on each candidate and can usually pick out the very good ones.

My biggest horror stories when I did it myself have been with people letting me down. Had room ready, cleaned and tidies from floor to ceiling, basket of goodies on the bed, and the girl just failed to show up... Numerous tales of email/phone conversations lasting weeks with other candidates only for them to suddenly go cold, stop communicating or something else.

Since using agencies there has been almost no problems on the searching side. The problem is knowing who to choose.

With girls who have been living with us the problems have mainly been centred on eating habits/routine differences and driving.

Eating routines we always have a good talk to them before they come and try to identify the faddy eaters. My daughter is quite old herself now so I don't want any habits being copied. We've managed to have three consecutive girls with almost normal eating habits, but have had a couple who seem to live on chocolate.

Had a few car bumps mainly with reversing and manouvres.. Now just insist on more driving lessons to orientate and if the instructor says they are still weak then usually agree some extra ironing to cover them or they just pay over the agreed number.. I'm not going to pay for someone to learn to drive from scratch after all.

Success stories - we've had lots.. We keep in touch with almost every single person we've had living with us and have started to see babies, been to weddings and we've had holidays wjere we've dropped in and stayed or visited with their own families.

I try to treat all the girls as if they were my own daughter.. I usually go for older candidates as they are more independent, though we've been surprised by some who seemed were quite needy who were actually older. Everyone is different and I've learned it is wrong to generalise too much. Once you've had one au pair it's also a bad mistake to always be comparing to them - especially if you feel one was wonderful.. Hard for the next act to follow and when someone leaves that you've grown fond of, it's easy to forget how awkward/shy/uncommunicative or whatever they may have been when they first arrived.

Good Luck with it all - but I do think you need to think again about what you will pay..

If you want to pay such a low wage you're going to have someone under 25.

Otherwise you'll be looking at least £203 per week for 35 hours.