Can't believe my cleaner just asked me this?!

[marplessparkles]

Cleaner texted me to ask if I could pay her cash this week (£60). I said sure, is it just for this week or is this something you want to do every week?

She replied if I could do it every week because she found out she and her partner can get housing benefit if she can prove she has a lower income, so obviously not declaring or paying tax on her cash jobs.

I'm a bit On a moral and ethical level I can't see how she is so blatantly happy in doing this; ripping of hard working taxpayers and councils who will have to fund her benefits.

AIBU to let her go?

There's a difference between paying cash in good faith, hoping that the cleaning business (however small) chooses to keep accurate books and pay what tax is owed (if any) - and being complicit in actively defrauding the state knowing your cash on hand cleaner uses an artificially lowered income to claim housing benefit.
The amount of tax owed on even a full time cleaner's salary is not going to be enormous, whereas to claim benefits (housing and others) she could potentially be costing the taxpayer £2000+ a month!

I can't believe she actually told you the reason!
If it was me I would say nothing and agree to pay her in cash, but then I am aware of how shitty the benefits system is and would be happy to help out anyone who was struggling if I could.

I would try to avoid drama. If you report her you never know where it may lead. It is her business what she does with her finances and she is daft for telling you. The benefit system is rubbish. Housing Benefit won't be paying her full rent anyway, they hardly ever do You never know £60 may cover a short fall. In the grand scheme of things it isn't loads of money. If she is a good cleaner her job is to clean your home and you to pay her and that's it and leave personal and personalities and extra drama out of it.

Yes it's somewhat annoying but I pay her £6 an hour and she's honest and reliable.

LMAO. I can't believe someone actually admitted to this.

WTF does someone who pays £6ph have to get annoyed about??

I don't pay the lady who cleans for me cash in Belgium, as they have a system of service cheques to encourage people to come off the black. The cheque system means that she gets social security benefits and holiday pay. I pay €9 per cheque, and she gets 6 cheques for cleaning my house. This is subsidised by the Federal govt, so whilst the cost of the cheques to me are €9 each, the value to her of each cheque is €22.

£6 an hour is illegal. You report her, she will hopefully report you.

I worked as a cleaner years ago and didn't declare it because I was put off by the paperwork. I was an an idiot. I earned too little to pay tax and NI, but would have been entitled to NI credits.

Years ago as a single mum to 2 small children, I stuffed envelopes from home. It was just before Christmas and I sat up until the early hours night after night, putting leaflets etc into envelopes to earn a few extra pounds.

I didn't declare it.

The cleaner on £6 ph could be under 25, then this would be legal.

The elderly cleaner will be on pension credit if her state pension is her only income.

Whether she is allowed to earn money ad well I don't know.

Oh god I can't believe I just read this one reply
'With that attitiude, she could well be happy to steal from you too'

Please get in the real world, the poor woman is just trying to earn a bit of extra money ... how on earth does that now make her a house stealer ????

Wish I could just wipe £3k (£60 a week) worth of pay off my books and not pay the £1.2k tax that I would normally have to pay for it, would that be ok with the people defending it, or because I earn decent money it's frowned upon?

Some of these posts do make me sigh...

OP- are you a client or an employer?
If you're a client, what she does with her money is her own business. Of course you won't go to jail for paying someone cash in hand. The onus is on HER to declare her earnings.
However, morally speaking, you'd be hard pressed to find someone ok paying cash knowing what she's told you.

If you're her employer, and you are responsible for deducting her tax and NI, then you would be breaking the law paying someone cash in hand without declaration and record keeping.

Not good. Let her go or report her. I wouldn't let someone like that in my home.

£6 an hour is not a great wage, but it fine when it's money you're not paying tax on, and you're raking in extra state benefits because you're not declaring your bloody income!

FFS, I can't believe the amount of people who think what this woman is doing is OK. Why do you think it's OK? WHY is it OK to rob the state of benefits you are NOT entitled to?

'Oh the poor woman is just trying to make ends meet!' people are crying. So what? We ALL are. All of us honest hardworking taxpayers are trying to make ends meet, so cry me a fucking river.

She is not some fragile innocent little flower! She is breaking the law, she is taking the piss, she is fleecing benefits, she is probably doing it with other people (as well as with the OP!) and she is dragging the OP into her benefit fraud.

THAT is the long and short of it.

Exactly littlefrog, this dismissive attitude to benefit fraud makes it much harder to actually have a decent compassionate benefits system.

Many people don't support benefits because they don't think they're fair, and they also think the people with political power have more sympathy for the cheats than they do for those struggling to get by honestly.

£6 an hour is below the minimum wage. If you want people you employ to pay tax, pay them the legal wage. OP is behaving illegally and could be prosecuted.

Well then the OP should say she will pay her NMW as long as she declares it. Why should she be entitled to £12 an hour as some have suggested?

£12 an hour for unskilled labour??? I don't think so.

By paying £12 an hr you are paying a rate that means that she gets min wage in her pocket as the extra pays the NI and Tax, insurance and other expenses such as travel that a self employed person incurs

Also cleaning is not unskilled, I mean there are many people male and female that just don't seem to understand how to do it at all...

The cleaner on £6 ph could be under 25, then this would be legal

How would this be legal barbara, when NMW for under 25s is £6.95? I guess she could maybe be 18-20, but I haven't met many cleaners that young and they would be unlikely to be entitled to much in the way of benefits either.

£6 an hour is below the minimum wage. If you want people you employ to pay tax, pay them the legal wage. OP is behaving illegally and could be prosecuted.

OP is paying £10 per hour. The cleaner is no employee of the OP, either. NMW does not apply, she is paying for a service, not employing the cleaner. If the cleaner agrees, she could give her 20p or do it for free. OP is a client or customer of the cleaner.

Self employed people are exempt from national minimum wage.

Sorry didn't refresh before I posted.

Okay so OP is not behaving illegally. But the only people who would accept so little, are those who are not going to declare it.

If she's good keep her but refuse to pay cash and tell her why.