To cancel my cleaner

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

I've been thinking about this for a while - it costs me almost £100 a month and I can do a better job myself. I had a different cleaner to begin with but she is now an area manager. I received this in my inbox today

RE: Rise in the Living Wage.
As you will probably be aware the National Living Wage is due to rise on the 1st April. It has always been our priority to reward our hardworking staff with a rise at this time of year to keep them in line with the National Living Wage.
Last year we only increased our prices by the wage increase despite the prospect of all other prices rising. The consumer price index has increased by 9.2% in the last 12 months, For us fuel has increased by 20% so with these increases in mind I have no choice but to increase our prices up too 11% from the 1st April.
If you pay by Direct Debit or you are a business that pays on invoice then this increase will be reflected in charges from your March invoice.
If you pay by standing order please find attached a S.A.E for the return of the enclosed form detailing your new monthly payment.
I would like to take the opportunity to wish you and your families well in this challenging period and to thank you for your loyal custom.

I'm not the employer of the cleaners, the agency is.

Cleaners are £12-15 an hour here. The latter would be cash in hand direct to the cleaner. If you employ then through an agency they will be taking a percentage. So I'm not sure what they're saying is unfair 🤷‍♀️

Cancel

The agency isn't unreasonable for putting up fees as cost of fuel has risen

I wonder if they'll reduce their prices when the petrol prices fall?

I pay my cleaner £16ph. She's worth every penny because we have to keep the house tidy for when she comes. I'd pay her £16 even if she didn't come, just for that alone.

If you think she's worth more, pay her more. You don't have to wait for her to put her rate up. £11.50 seems very cheap to me.

Like any other service, if you don't actually need it then don't keep it. It's not a necessity for you, so I'm not sure what the issue is here.

My business is providing a service. I wouldn't be doing a very good job if I didn't factor all associated costs of service provision into my pricing, and got the customer to pay for them, to that I can make a profit on top.

Ok I own a cleaning business. I have employees.

When the national minimum wage goes up, Obviously we have no choice but to pay it. When that goes up, holiday pay goes up. Employees have to be paid travel time as they have no fixed place of work. They also get paid for mileage to and from the homes they clean.
Every job my cleaners go to from April will cost me at least an extra £1.50/hr in labour costs and I have no choice to pass that onto clients. Otherwise, simply, the business makes no money and we close.

Please don’t assume that any wage increase is directly added to the hourly wage. And don’t compare it to however much your payrise may or may not have been.

Any increase will be covering a host of costs. A cleaner charging, for example, £15/hour does not earn £15/hour. And TBH, won’t be making any money. It will cost me £14/hour to cover an hourly rate, mileage, travel time and holiday pay. This is before I add in our materials, insurance, products, equipment, laundering, software, accounting and payroll fees.

Quite simply, if you’re not getting what you want from the clean then cancel.
But the cost is the cost for a reason. Some of the replies here are incredibly shortsighted.

The issue for me is not with the national minimum wage increase. If that is the reason for a hike in price then the cleaners are paid too little in the first place. It's the profit margin I'm questioning. It's a franchise company.

I provide cleaning stuff not them.

It's made me think about my own charges for cat sitting too.

Well, theres no way to guess what their margins and overheads are.

They May pay their staff a good package and are trying to sustain that.

Ultimately, you’re not happy with the service regardless of price.

You don't think they clean well. Why employ them? Find yourself a private cleaner.

@ImJustMadAboutSaffron

It's up to the employer to pay NI employer contributions, not clients, AFAIAW

where would you like the agency to take this money from? The £25 ph will cover the NMW payment made to the cleaners, plus costs to the company, which will include the employer NI, pension costs, costs for admin staff to do rotas, answer phones etc purchase cleaning products, possibly mileage from what the email said, etc. costs for telephones, electricity for any office, website fees if they have a website, advertising costs possibly plus i would say a very small profit after that lot

if you don’t want to pay either stop or find someone to employ direct

I've not actually got around to cancellation yet with one thing and another. I have to give a month's notice. But after leaving notes about what I wanted doing, including the mirrors and seeing a scruffy circular smear on my dressing table mirror where she'd clearly gone around in a circle about three times, it's got to stop!

Try and find a self employed cleaner rather than an agency.
I charge £15 an hour, and use my own cleaning products.
You may find standards are higher

Pressed post too soon!
You may find standards are higher with someone working for themselves.