To expect change from my cleaner?

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Small backstory - our current cleaner is shielding so we have someone different filling in. They charge £9/hour and we have them 2 hours/week. We paid our previous cleaner via bank transfer but the new one has stipulated that she wants cash. £18 is tricky to cobble together when we're being encouraged to go cashless at the moment.

The first few weeks we had exact money, but since then have been giving £20. First time she bought change with her but not after that. I know I need to woman up and discuss it, but wanted to check first whether IABU!

I'm a tutor. I have a set fee per hour that's a round figure. However, I have a pro rata for little ones who can't cope with full hour so I often need change. I always take it with me to the ones who prefer to pay cash. Or if I forget and they don't have change I knock it off the next one. I certainly don't pocket the extra.
This isn't about being mean etc. It's about being paid what was agreed. The fact that some posters think the rate is lower than they would pay is irrelevant. They were not in on the agreement between OP and cleaner

If she's insisting on cash, it's probably a tax swizz!

God you're really getting piled on here op! Bizarre considering that you just want to pay the agreed rate. FWIW I used to pay my cleaner by bank transfer, she's insisting on cash now so I said she'd have to sort the change out which she's been fine with.

I would pay ten pounds an hour onprinciple

£9 is cheap.
Good cleaners are rare, but had a friend that did cleaning in a well off part of West London after her DH left, and she said in her lovely Swedish accent :
''Oh! some of the houses were so dirty! you'd not believe it...Awful''

She quit as soon as she could.
Stepmum had a cleaner, but would make us tidy up beforehand, to make her life easier.
She was a meticulous cleaner, . {She had a key}
That level of trust is worth it's weight in gold.
If the cleaner is meticulous and trustworthy, give her the £2 👍

This used to drive me mad so I ended up rounding it up to £20 - it took away a lot of stress!

If I could afford a cleaner I somehow don’t think £2 a week would be a huge deal.

I think we may have the same agency

We also have two hours a week and the agreement we have made with our cleaner is that we give her 20 pounds for four weeks in a row and then 10 pounds the 5th week - works out correctly.

I also feel that 9 pound is quite cheap though even though like you we pay the agency fee so we are going to top it up to 10 pounds by giving her the extra as a Christmas bonus.

I think if the cleaner is insisting on cash then it is on her to be providing the change. If she can't or its too much faff then why can't she accept bank transfer in the normal way? She is the one who has changed the status quo and made it more inconvenient.

It is your responsibility to give her the exact money, not up to her to give you change.

I think you are owed the change but am sure you can work something out surely!! I think our cleaner carries some coins round its no big deal, she charges 12 so a slightly less awkward amount, we usually manage to cobble together £4 in coins

😂😂 it's £2 a week. If you can afford a cleaner I don't think you are desperate for the 2 quid change.

I'd just deduct the amount owing from previous session... so instead of £18 leave £16. Of course, I'd also add a note to confirm this.

This. Why would you keep giving her more than you agreed?

Regarding the national minimum wage - this is slightly more.

It would annoy me too OP. I always have to get the right change for the car wash. The guys are lovely but if you give them a tenner they're keeping it.

I see the if you have a cleaner you are rich and C8nt brigade are out in force.

YANBU. Your cleaner is stipulating cash, which is not your usual arrangement, so the onus is on her to bring change (or at least let you know she expects you to deduct it from the next week). Particularly now when it is harder / less desirable to get hold of cash.
You’re also not stingy for wanting to pay the agreed amount. Your cleaner has signed up to be paid this amount, to work for 2 hours, and to travel to you.

From the Royal Mint website:

"In order to comply with the very strict rules governing an actual legal tender it is necessary, for example, actually to offer the exact amount due because no change can be demanded."

It's the person paying who is responsible for giving the exact amount.

Ask the agency to send a cleaner willing to take a bank transfer. Completely unnecessary in these times to stipulate cash only and a total ball ache to boot. If cleaner wants a higher rate of pay she should set up independently rather than let an agency take a cut.

Just give her a bloody £2 tip you right wad.

When I wrote my post, the OP didn't say she was going through an agency - as the agency will employ the cleaner, they'll be the one paying her her sick pay, holiday etc, so the OP isn't quite as tight as I'd assumed

She may be self-employed but getting work through an agency.

*tight

Just give her a bloody £2 tip you right wad

I'm inclined to think this.

Its just one step up from waiting for change from the Big Issue seller.

I often used to give my cleaner extra because of the change situation. I’d take it off the next week.

Give 20 I don’t faff about with change.

"Its just one step up from waiting for change from the Big Issue seller."

How does expecting to pay an agreed amount for a service have anything to do with the big issue?!

I'd be irritated that change wasnt offered to be fair. I run a cleaning company and we charge domestic clients £12 per hour for general cleaning. Staff are paid £9 an hour but also get holiday pay, pension contributions and a fuel allowance if they're driving. Most self employed cleaners - agency usually means self employed - are just paid their hourly. No other contributions or holiday pay. They dont work, they dont get. And the problem with the hourly rate is most agencies set it, with a couple allowing you to set your own but advising the rate you should set.