Cleaner who works 6 hours per week preferring cash in hand weekly - holiday pay? Is this a thing?

[Catwhispereroo]

Hi, we have a cleaning lady who is generally lovely. She comes for 6 hours per week, £20 per hour, so £120 per week. She always prefers cash in hand weekly.

Today she asked if we will pay her 4 weeks holiday pay as, according to her, 'everyone else does.'

I had a think about it, but have had to tell her this is not possible. I feel bad though. AIBU?

My reasoning is -

1. A cleaner is already quite a luxury, as I'm no longer working.

2. We have had lots of cleaners over the years and all preferred cash and none ever asked for holiday pay for cash in hand work.

3. I don't want the hassle of a contract setting out holiday pay or sickness pay (will that be next)? We are a just a private household, not a company.

4. I will give her a few weeks pay as a Xmas bonus anyway.

5. She seems to go abroad for a month each year. If we gave her 4 weeks pay, that would be almost £500. Then, if I got a replacement cleaner in for those weeks, that would be another £500!

6. When we go away I'm happy for her to come as usual (even though we don't really need this) so that she doesn't lose out financially. But I can't pay 4 weeks holiday as week.

Again, AIBU? Thanks!

I'd want cash too as a cleaner,people are shocking at 'forgetting' to go to the cash point.

Isn’t holiday pay when the cleaner is on holiday? A retainer would be when the householder doesn’t need cleaning but pays anyway.

There are so many reasons someone wants cash and it’s not just about dodging tax! Our cleaner comes to us on a Wednesday morning, she does one other short job after and is finished by 2 so that’s her chance to do supermarket shopping before getting her kids at 3. And she prefers to have cash to do that. I have no reason to think she is not paying tax - in fact she definitely was during the pandemic as she claimed the self employment support and needed evidence to do that.

This - if she wants to be an employer she’ll have to be one!

Sorry I don’t understand this - surely if people are shocking at forgetting to go to the cash point, then a standing order would be the way to go?

She doesn't have any responsibility that she needs to absolve of, they're fine to pay cash if that's what the cleaner wants, it's up to the cleaner to make sure she's declaring it correctly, not the OP.

She said that she knows her cleaner isn't declaring it, so as a bare minimum, there is a moral responsibility. I wouldn't employ or be complicit in open tax avoidance, fraud and screwing over tax payers.

Yes, that's right. I'm a cleaner and if I'm away, I certainly wouldn't expect any of my clients to pay me.
That said, one of my clients recently said that they didn't want me for 2 weeks. They weren't going away. No acknowledgement that I'm now losing 2 weeks pay out of the blue. It's left a bitter taste in my mouth and they're on the brink of becoming ex-clients.

Well that was something I had to factor in to my thought process when I set up my cleaning service. I don't want to guiilt people in having me all the time, not when they pretty much want me all year round. This said, I have people queing up for a cancellation for extra cleaning, so I can easily fill a gap.

I pay mine when I go on holiday ( because that’s my decision to go away and she shouldn’t lose out) , but I don’t pay when she goes away ( usually for 3 weeks). I give her a week’s pay as a Christmas present.