Advice needed. DN worked over summer ‘cash in hand’ and owner won’t pay now.

[NaturalBlondeYeahRight]

This is all news to me. I knew she had a job at a local shop in her village while home from uni but didn’t know it was cash in hand. The owner has other employees. Worked for six weeks straight and is owed over £1000. Now she has finished to go back and he is ignoring her texts and calls. Don’t want to go straight in with threat to report them just in case but we don’t have much option do we? Anyone come across this kind of thing before. She is relying on this money. A lesson had definitely been learnt but what would you do?

And no, hasn’t had a summer job since last summer.

This!
And I'd approach them in front of customers about it!

She got a dad or uncle who she can go in with to tell him to pay this money by 5pm tomorrow?

No that's ridiculous. Why would ypu want to threaten by an unnecessary male presence? They should deal with this properly and legally. Not through intimidating the owner.

Employees are allowed to be paid in cash, they just have to report to HMRC (which she can’t do until she’s received it anyway). She hasn’t done anything wrong.

Did he ask her for her National Insurance number?

I agree with this but my first threat would be money tomorrow or else it is going all over the local Facebook groups.

"Cash in hand" does not mean "cash".

Who is talking about threatening or intimidating? Her male relative is just there in the background. So she is not alone and appearing vulnerable to being ripped off, which she clearly has been so far.

If you let the owner take the piss, he will do. He is clearly willing to as he hasn’t paid her. Scandalous behaviour, taking advantage of a young girl.

Its clearly 'employment'

As such she would not get involved with tax & NI its the employers job

She would not necessarily know if she was being paid 'off the books'

There might also be 'minimum wage; issues as she hasnt been paid at all

Cash in hand work is legal, avoiding paying tax or not declaring it is illegal.

Does she have a contract or any proof of her employment?

She can just say all she knows is he agreed to employ her, she did the work, now the wages are not forthcoming. She needn't have had any idea whether he was intending to dodge his taxes, NICs etc.

Obviously if she goes down there with an adult man to back her up, politely request her money. In front of the other staff who knew she worked there ideally.

Then if she doesn't get it say you'll be reporting him and taking him to small claims.

There must be witnesses who can corroborate that she was working there.

For which she would have needed to give him her name, address, date of birth, and National Insurance number.

He is definitely in the wrong here, but she seems to have played along.

Could she get legal help from the Student Union at her college?

You’re wrong.

OP’s DN has done nothing wrong.

It has never been illegal to be paid your wages in cash providing the employer has put everything through his books and given her a proper pay slip or wages envelope with all deductions noted.

Plenty of employees are still paid in cash weekly.

Or didn't know what information they required. It's not her job to make her employer comply with the law.

I think it's scandalous that the business owner has behaved like this and yes naive but we all make mistakes and she was probably just too trusting.

Keep all the messages as proof etc - I would go there during opening/working hours with back up and clearly and firmly request her payment - hopefully they will pay up

• if not take advice on here re small claims etc and HRMC and also name/shame

I am boycotting a local pub (as are my friends) as they offer youngsters a paid trial as washer uppers and then say they are not suitable , don't pay for the trial session and then start again with another youngster

Where are you getting this nonsense from? It's totally unhelpful. How does a person "register as self employed"? They don't, is the short answer. A person can decide to form a limited company or become a sole trader but in both cases there are implications that need to be carefully considered, far beyond filing a tax return.

OP it sounds very much like DN will not hit anything even approaching the text threshold so don't stress about that aspect. I'd speak with citizens advice about next steps and not feeling any qualms about dropping the employer in the shit.

I agree that she should go to the shop, fully prepared for a loud discussion. She could be accompanied by anyone - doesn’t need to be a male. My son and his house mates had a difficult landlord who was threatening to not return the deposit. I sent him a polite email stating the facts ;flat had not been clean when they moved in, was in a better state now and if deposit not returned, we would go to dispute resolution. At handover 2 mums were there supporting. He was a bit of a dick but paid up in full.

She should have been classed as an employee and everything gone through payroll. Its likely there's no tax to pay. Did she get minimum wage? Did she get holiday pay? Sounds very dodgy by employer. I would follow ACAS advice followed earlier. You can also call their helpline.

Tax, not text. Typing with a broken wrist.

Of course and it's not up to N to make sure his accounts are in order. It's a casual Summer job. What he'd probably do is claim he paid her on his tax return.
She needs to see Citizens Advice. CA will help her fill out Small Claims Court form. It's all done online, no attending court. Take any proof with her.
Wonder why she didn't ask when she wasn't paid the first week.

Exactly this, there is nothing dodgy about her working "cash in hand" ... so long as she declares it, as her tax return isn't due until the end of January at the moment she has done nothing wrong.

There is also nothing wrong with the employer paying cash, again so long as the payments are correctly recorded / declared - my bet is that they are not doing that.

So a threat of HMRC should be quite successful, however your daughter will need to be by the book and put in a self assessment, she likely won't owe anything and doing a tax return is good practice for adulting.

The niece isn’t self employed! What made you leap to that conclusion?

She’s doing a temporary summer job in a village store and was expecting to be paid in cash which is perfectly legal. It’s up to the employer to sort out her tax deductions and provide an itemised payslip.