To want to pay cleaner by bank transfer not cash.

[Starryskiesinthesky]

Cleaner wants paid in cash but I never have cash so would prefer to pay by bank transfer. Fact she wants cash makes me think she’s not declaring it. What do others do and do you care if they are not declaring it? £15 per hour if it makes a difference. Thanks.

@anxiousstanley

I pay my wonderful lady in cash. It's really not anyone's business but hers and the tax man if she is declaring it or not.

Of course it's everyone's business if someone is defrauding the country - the taxes that should be paid on cash payments pay towards all the facilities that the country needs and uses.

Imagine if everyone did this?

If you found out that an MP wasn't declaring their consultation fees to the taxman would you be ok with that as well?

If only cleaners could afford accountants for tax 'planning' like their clients, unfortunately for the amount of tax I imagine they might have to pay (less than 1k) it doesn't make sense really so they will be lumped in as tax 'evaders'.

No way I'd deal in cash. I've been handed so many fake notes. I'd be mortified if I'd handed on a fake.

I used to pay my cleaner in cash a month in advance so I had o get cash out less often and that worked well for us.

@Classicblunder

My cleaner told me that she only does cash now as a lot of people were just not paying her by bank transfer, sometimes for weeks at a time so she now basically says cash only for new customers until she knows them better

Was coming on to say this. MN is obsessed with the idea that cash in hand always = tax evasion, but that's not true. There are lots of legitimate reasons why small businesses/sole traders may prefer cash, including reliability and avoiding business bank charges.

Just get some cash out and keep it to one side for the cleaner only.

If only cleaners could afford accountants for tax 'planning' like their clients

Oh come on. Not all people who use the services of a cleaner are some rich tax evader. My 75 year old mum moves things around in her budget as she finds it hard to clean her flat herself.

Why are people on MN so sneery about anyone who uses a cleaner? If no one did, the cleaners wouldn't have work as cleaners!

@Oftenithinkaboutit

So if you never pay an ice cream man with cash? A food stall? A fair ground ride? At a Christmas fete?

They all take card now! In fact the last one I went to was ‘no cash’ (shame, as I had a rare fiver on me).

@Oftenithinkaboutit

So if you never pay an ice cream man with cash? A food stall? A fair ground ride? At a Christmas fete?

They are ok to pay in cash of course because they are normally men. These pearl clutching reactions only apply to women doing the shit jobs we'd rather not.

Ours had cash, I used to take out the cash on payday for the month as we live miles from a cash point, then pay her weekly as requested.

I couldn’t care less if she declared it or not.

One of the few good things about lockdown 1 is that I started paying my cleaner by bank transfer (obviously cash was no good when she wasn't coming in) and have just carried on- so much easier.

Neither of you are unreasonable, it comes down to if this is a deal breaker for either of you. There could be a number of reasons to want to be paid in cash; from the bad, wanting to not pay taxes or benefit fraud; to the mundane, our cleaner is part of a larger company, it's easier for them to pay the companies cut if they get cash; to survival, needing cash to live off so it's not swallowed up in debt or needing cash so an abusive partner/parent can't control all the money. You don't need to attach a value judgement to people wanting to be paid in cash, you can't know if the reason is nefarious, or mundane or one worthy of support. It's either this is a deal breaker for you, or it isn't. If it is tell the cleaner that you're unable to pay in cash and ask if they'll accept bank transfer. If they won't let you pay by bank transfer, you take your business elsewhere. If on balance you'd rather pay in cash then find a new cleaner, do that and leave the cleaners ethical choices to them.

My cleaner accepts both. I have a DD set up to pay her every week on the same day.
My neighbor uses the same cleaner and prefers to pay her cash.
I don’t give a crap what she does with her cash tbh. Declare it or not, she’s bloody brilliant at what she does.

I see the OP has decided to carry on cleaning herself, but here's my tuppence worth anyway! It may be the cleaner doesn't have a bank account for you to transfer the payment to? I agree, having the correct cash ready to pay the cleaner is a complete PITA, but if they are a good cleaner, it is worth making a special trip to a cash point or to get cash back once a month or even once a quarter, to be able to pay them cash in hand if that is what they ask for.

I used to pay in cash each time my cleaner came, until the cleaning agency rang and said I hadn’t paid. In the end I paid again to keep the peace and then cancelled the contract. I wouldn’t pay in cash again.

@yikerspipers

Some while ago a family member was caught out paying someone in cash and the tax people said that what he'd paid them was net pay. He ended up being sent a demand to pay the tax and NI which would have been deducted to get to that net pay figure.

This would be because HMRC deemed this person to be your family member "employee". Would never happen with a cleaner. Don't scaremonger.

Why would it not happen ?

People on MN are often a bit patronising about cleaners, like they are all desperate women who can't find another job and have no skills and their job is so godawful and no one would chose to so it so let's be super kind to them. No one suggests this of window cleaners and gardeners, but cleaners seem to inspire pity in people, as if it's a job not worth doing (yet plenty are happy to pay for it!)

I have a couple of good friends who are cleaners and both are rightly very proud of the business they have built up, and they do treat it like a business. It works well for them because they chose their own hours and where to work, they can fit it around other commitments, and they enjoy it. They aren't destitute or in need of someone's pity because they're 'cleaning skin cells'

@bestcoffeepot because HMRC would need to determine that the cleaner is actually your employee rather than working for herself as a contractor. Unless she is coming everyday or there are other reasons to think she is an "employee", this would never happen.

I find it a faff too, especially as it’s never an amount in £10 or £20 denominations.

People on MN are often a bit patronising about cleaners, like they are all desperate women who can't find another job and have no skills and their job is so godawful and no one would chose to so it so let's be super kind to them. No one suggests this of window cleaners and gardeners, but cleaners seem to inspire pity in people, as if it's a job not worth doing (yet plenty are happy to pay for it!)

I have a couple of good friends who are cleaners and both are rightly very proud of the business they have built up, and they do treat it like a business. It works well for them because they chose their own hours and where to work, they can fit it around other commitments, and they enjoy it. They aren't destitute or in need of someone's pity because they're 'cleaning skin cells'

This x 1000000. The hourly rate is often more than an ALDI worker. It's middle class MN at it's worst.

@Starcaller totally agree. It's bizarre. My cleaner is ridiculously in demand and can pick and choose her clients and moves us all around to suit her schedule and needs etc. She professional and very good at what she does. And I pay her in cash.

We got a cleaner to take a task away from us, not give us a different task to take on. I wouldn’t bother with one that insisted on cash. I know on MN you have to agree to literally any terms a cleaner might propose or you’ll never find another but in my experience it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement where both parties accommodate each other. And it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that preferring digital payments makes you responsible for the receiver thereof being unable to flee domestic abuse

I'd get cash from the supermarket cash back and pay in cash if that's what she prefers and she's a good cleaner. All the excuses that its so hard for you also mean those same excuses are why its hard for her to then withdraw the cash.

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees

People on MN are often a bit patronising about cleaners, like they are all desperate women who can't find another job and have no skills and their job is so godawful and no one would chose to so it so let's be super kind to them. No one suggests this of window cleaners and gardeners, but cleaners seem to inspire pity in people, as if it's a job not worth doing (yet plenty are happy to pay for it!)

I have a couple of good friends who are cleaners and both are rightly very proud of the business they have built up, and they do treat it like a business. It works well for them because they chose their own hours and where to work, they can fit it around other commitments, and they enjoy it. They aren't destitute or in need of someone's pity because they're 'cleaning skin cells'

This x 1000000. The hourly rate is often more than an ALDI worker. It's middle class MN at it's worst.

Absolutely. I thought cleaners generally earned £15-20 per hour -significantly more than the NMW? Therefore, they earn good money and have the potential to have a thriving business that they can build around their lifestyles. It's absolutely nothing to be sneered at!

I would pay by Bank Transfer simply so there was a record of making each payment.

Whether they declare it or not I don't care either way but I would like proof that I have paid.

@StoppinBy

I would pay by Bank Transfer simply so there was a record of making each payment.

Whether they declare it or not I don't care either way but I would like proof that I have paid.

Why? Why do you need proof you have paid your cleaner for her weekly clean of, what 2 hours?