to pay my polish nanny cash in hand?

[PissPoor]

She also wants me to employ her sister as a cleaner, cash in hand. We can afford it, and our house will keep her busy until the end of time.

I wouldn't be so bothered about the cleaner but I think you're crazy to pay someone who looks after your children cash-in-hand - what about insurance, child care qualifications?

What is the fact that she is Polish got to do with it?

I am here home all the time so I suppose she is more like 'a very good friend' who watches my children if you know what I mean.

Nothing really. That's just what she is though.

She had asked if she could say her dd lived here so that she could claim child benefit. I compromised at cash in hand work.
DH says I should not do this.

Cleaner OK, child care not so much.

Neither of it ok really.

Anything to do with childcare really should be above board, like laurie says, where's the comeback for you if anything goes wrong? She's not a friend she'd be an employee.

I'm not sure the tax dodging will go down very well given the shit the country is in at the min, we've got a duty to give as much back to fill the coffers as we can.

You probably are BU, and I probably am BU to say that I'd take CIH for a cleaning job a couple of hours a week.
Make of that what you will.

(I don't have a CIH job)

Yes, YABU.
"We can afford it" so pay bloody NIC then!

she asked if you could pretend that her DD lived with you?? really?

YABU - aside from the fact that you are tax dodging, paying somebody cash-in-hand means that they do not have:

• National Insurance contributions and associated pension entitlement

• the right to sick pay

• the right to holiday pay

• insurance

• any legal protection as an employee.

This is why I employ an agency cleaner.

YABU for exactly the reasons outlined by unfit mother and inveteratenamechanger

unreasonable - probably. It may be difficult for the women to get any benefits that they would have been entitled to had you paid the NI etc.

As for yourself, you're facing the risks of:-
a) getting caught by HMRC, fined, paying back tax and NI. Could be a risk that you're happy to take. However if you work in a high profile job or in public service, then a risk I guess you'd rather avoid as it would probably be career damaging.
b) getting caught by your friends/neighbours/acquaintances, especially by the stage that your children start school/preschool. Nannies talk, word gets round very quickly. Depending on your circle of friends you may not mind. But you will be judged - its seen as similar to benefit fraud round here (and then there's always the risk that someone else will shop you!).

You certainly won't be the first person to do it, nor the last. Whether you want to be that sort of person I guess is up to you.

yabu

YABU.

Breaking the law? Fraud?

So your nanny and her cleaner sister want you to pay them cash in hand so they don't pay taxes. They also want you to lie about their dd living with you so they can claim benefits from other peoples taxes and you're planning to help them do this?....okaaaay.....not happy in fact pretty pissed off.

I'd pay cash in hand. If she's on benefits they'll dock them otherwise and then what's the point working as it won't provide a better quality of life for her. I assume that's why she's asking.

Oh, just read the child benefit bit.

Round here finding a reliable cleaner is probably more difficult than finding a good nanny (and let's not even start on the fact that the cleaner is paid more). That someone working in your house and with your children is not a fraudster I would have though would be one of the first criteria.

Do you really want this woman involved in the daily raising of your children? Thank goodness you'll be there all the time. Heaven only knows what she'd do if you weren't.

I would only be paying them £4.50.

Perhaps you should consider whether they are employed by you or acting as self-employed. If you employ them then I think you are culpable for the tax evasion that you are implying in your OP and I would not personally want to break the law and risk a criminal record. If they are self-employed then it is up to them to declare their earnings and pay tax & NIC (you should definitely encourage them to do this for the reasons outline above by other people).

See this link to determine their employment status (the cleaner may be different from the nanny).

Less than the minimum wage?
That's OK then.