Nanny leaving

[Countessofgranthamm]

Nanny leaving who has been with us 3 and a half years. Is it unreasonable to just give gift and a card or is it customary to give money too? We are moving overseas for DP work so I suppose we are technically the ones leaving! She is the first nanny we have had to unsure of the customs?

A nanny working for the family for three years is a third of a nine year old’s life, half of a six year old’s and the entirety of a three year old’s.

The situation looks very different from the child’s perspective- especially as five or ten minutes a day handover from parent to nanny and back might not have the parent spending much time with nanny, but it normally translates to several hours of that child’s day. It’s only natural and healthy that they bond.

I think it is more the case that they don’t want to understand it / accept somebody else can be that important to their child

Exactly right. And there are companies to help (we used NannyTax) for example) as we didn’t know how to approach it. They calculated everything and produced payslips etc so it was easy.

If the nanny claims the money HMRC may be all over this OP like a rash!

Well I guess op can’t unhappen things.

If they say the money is owing she just has to back-pay; it’s not like she paid it at the time so I guess it averages out.

The main thing she can do now is make sure she covers anything due as redundancy and take good care to handle it sensitively for the children. Just telling them “well you’re not her children” probably won’t cut it.

I’m self employed. My clients choose to work with me because of f my depth of experience, knowledge of the subject and strategic thinking skills. If I sent someone else to do the job I wouldn’t last long professionally.

@NetZeroZealot I think you've missed the point.

There are a number of tests you can apply to see if someone is self employed or employed.

One of those things is can you swap out with another person - in one of my 'jobs', I can swap shifts with one of 7 other people or give them my shift and thats arranged entirely between us, not the people who pay us.

In other roles, I can't do that, if a client hires me directly for a job, its me they want.
But, I set the price, I decide the hours I will work, and when, I can decline a particular job, or client. So in both cases, I am self employed.

If a Nanny cannot do some/any of those things, then likely she is not self employed.

Do you work the same days each week fir each family?

I was a self employed nanny the tax man didn't seem to mind that so long as I paid him at the end of the year. This was more than a decade ago though so maybe laws have changed.

If you do thr same days each week for a family and can't turn the work down any week you're not self employed. That was the case over 10y ago

The tax man rarely actively investigates if a self-employment status is legitimate unless it's brought to his attention.

I don't think working in the family home is the crux of it. Plenty of people have a gardener who comes to do garden work, as directed, and during specified hours, or a cleaning lady once or even more often a week at a specific time who does as directed.

As it often is by disgruntled ex nannies.....

Do nannies get redundancy payouts? By the very nature of the job, it must be assumed that it won’t go on for ever!

Yes of course they do, thankfully we are subject to the same protections as all other legally employed professionals. You can say ‘surely it can’t go on forever’ about lots of jobs.

Your nanny is an employee. There are particular, simplified schemes to deal with PAYE for nannies. You have effectively been avoiding any employers NIC which is due. It really is that simple.

The absolute crux of the matter, when dealing with claims that a worker is not an amplyee, is the right of that worker to substitute. Ie, in case of illness or in disposition, do they have the agreed right to send someone else to do the work. It would be extremely hard to demonstrate that a nanny would, or could, have that right.

Why don't you use paye? Do you realise its illegal not to with a nanny?

Does she have multiple families? If not i didn't think a nanny could be self employed for 1 family. I would check that legally and where you stand on redundancy.

If she's self employed assume she gave you a contract to sign with her terms of notice you had to give her?

Ok so personally I wouldn’t go down the gift card path,
would give her/him cash , and some thing personal ,card definitely and something you know she likes
gift cards are a pain in the arse

Why don't you use paye? Do you realise its usually illegal not to with a nanny?

The op has disappeared, I wonder why?

When I was nannying you could be self employed if you worked for more than one family and you chose your days hours. If it is contracted regular hours then the family must legally employ the nanny.

I was a self employed nanny the tax man didn't seem to mind that so long as I paid him at the end of the year. This was more than a decade ago though so maybe laws have changed.

The rules have been changed - see off payroll workers. Its not enough for the nanny to have self certified as self employed, op has an obligation and needed to operate paye and pay employers nic.

This nails it.

Just because you don't HAVE TO, doesn't mean you shouldn't. She'd get redundancy in any other job in this situation. Do the decent thing. Curious as to why she's not going with you, or do you think you'll get cheaper staff abroad?