To expect change from my cleaner?

[TextsOnReadBallsOnBlue]

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!

Why should she be expected to have correct change if you don't?

Because it is the cleaner who is insisting on that payment method she should ensure she can provide change. If shes getting £9ph off everyone then theoretically she should have plenty of loose change to give £2 back. The OP is having to find £8 in coins, why cant the cleaner find £2 to give change when it is far easier to get hold if £2 than £8 in change?

If they want £10ph then they need to charge that - the OP should not be obligated to "tip" the cleaner above the price quoted every week.

It's no different to taxi drivers - they charge a fee to your destination. If they don't accept cards then they need to have a float to provide change. If I choose to tip by rounding up to the nearest pound/note value then that is my choice, they cant just decide not to give me change.

VeniVidiWeeWee

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.

😂😂😂

@VeniVidiWeeWee

That quote is about payments into court!!!!

If it were £11 an hour, should OP round it down to £10 ?

@Aridane

I would cheerfully give her the £20 to be honest. £9 an hour is a very low rate. I pay my cleaner £15 an hour.

Well bully for you - the rate for zoP is £9 an hour

The 'rate' is underpaid. I don't care where you live.

@nevertheknowing

I think it's really patronising to compare expecting to be offered change from a cleaner with expecting change from a big issue seller. You'd expect to be offered change from other services, like a gardener, taxi driver, childminder, barber, hairdresser, what's so different about a cleaner?

@Trisolaris

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’m going to bump my own message here because seriously - the drama on this thread! And this is how I think I solved the problem pretty easily. . .

I had this issue. I pay the Polish lady who does our cleaning £13 an hour (£9 seems rather below the going rate, my cleaner comes from an agency) and she's always done 3 hours. For several visits in succession, she didn't have change and I was getting fed up tbh. I just made sure I had the correct change after that.

She has agreed to bank transfers now, thankfully, which makes life easier.

The 'rate' is underpaid. I don't care where you live.

The rate is £12ph which is not underpaid. Its just that the OP pays £3 direct to the agency and £9 direct to the cleaner.

@Mittens030869

I had this issue. I pay the Polish lady who does our cleaning £13 an hour (£9 seems rather below the going rate, my cleaner comes from an agency) and she's always done 3 hours. For several visits in succession, she didn't have change and I was getting fed up tbh. I just made sure I had the correct change after that.

She has agreed to bank transfers now, thankfully, which makes life easier.

Glad you got your £1 back.

I think it's really patronising to compare expecting to be offered change from a cleaner with expecting change from a big issue seller

In what way is it patronising? Big Issue sellers are working not begging. They buy those magazines and that at a profit.

People are making the point that there is no argument here as the price was agreed for the service - in which absolutist argument this should apply to big issue sellers too. Others say there is a moral argument as the person providing the service/ product is low paid and the amount you are overpaying is tiny.

Just deduct it from the next week. Eventually you'll get to the week where you only give her £10 🤷🏼‍♀️

Why not just give them the £2.

£20 for 2 hours is fuck all.

@ariadne

I would say it's about legal tender and still means you don't have to offer change. For example, think of all the vending machines that state "No change given".

It's not a legal requirement, (happy to be proved wrong though).

4 weeks of giving her £20 then you give her £10. It works out the same.
Make sure you tell her though.

But yeah I'd probably just give the £20 if they did a good job.

@AhNowTed No I didn't the £1 back, I let it go all those times. I just avoided future problems and made sure I had the right money, before agreeing to pay via bank transfer.

It wasn't worth making a fuss about was about £1 extra for several weeks, and I do have a good rapport with her.

I meant to say, 'I didn't get the £1 back those times'.

"The OP is having to find £8 in coins"

Is there no longer a £5 note?

@Mittens030869

I had this issue. I pay the Polish lady who does our cleaning £13 an hour (£9 seems rather below the going rate, my cleaner comes from an agency) and she's always done 3 hours. For several visits in succession, she didn't have change and I was getting fed up tbh. I just made sure I had the correct change after that.

She has agreed to bank transfers now, thankfully, which makes life easier.

So 3 hrs at £13 ph, so £39, assume you were annoyed paying £40 and not getting your £1 change? Wow

I would be inclined to say that in this current climate you are only prepared to pay by bank transfer. It sounds as if she doesn’t want to declare her earnings which as you know is illegal.

The poor woman is already being totally exploited by the agency
£6 on an £18 job. I bet you they are not paying her insurance or anything. That's where the piss-taking is.

@Desperadododo

"So 3 hrs at £13 ph, so £39, assume you were annoyed paying £40 and not getting your £1 change? Wow"

Yep, it seems that's how they roll.

Is this still going?

Workers don’t give change out of their fucking pay!