The dIfference with a mother's help

[goingbacktowork]

I need to find some childcare for a few hours several days each week (I have posted another thread on this).

In the meantime someone suggested a live in mothers help with childcare experience may work for us as there will be less problems with nanny etc not turning up for the school run (if they don't turn up the kids just wont be able to get to school).

I have looked at one agency site and had a few questiosn. I know the regulation of au pairs has changed in the last few years (though I don't know what to). The site says mothers helps must get a minimum of £150 on top of the live in costs and that they need a contract of employment and we pay the tax. Is this because the threshold of money esrned is over a certain amount?
An au pair arrangemnt seems much more informal.

Thanks

Perhaps the site you have seen is using Live-in Mothers Help to describe an au-pair. Which is possibly more correct now that the au-pair visa category does not exist (except for Romanian/Bulgarian nationals - see Form BR3)

Doesn't really matter what job title someone has though... it's just a title. Call them a live-in nanny if you like, call them an au-pair if you like.

there will be less problems with nanny etc not turning up for the school run (if they don't turn up the kids just wont be able to get to school).

Hmm, they didn't tell you that there could be problems if the live-in person didn't get up in the morning! Didn't say that having someone else live in your home, possibly 24/7 could cause your family problems (and not just using lots of toilet paper!).

The site says mothers helps must get a minimum of £150 on top of the live in costs

Never heard of that. National Minimum Wage does not apply for live-in staff to my knowledge... or has that changed? Therefore there isn't any minimum that could be offered.

they need a contract of employment
I think that following quite a bit of discussion on here that the conclusion was that it is best for there to be some type of formal agreement in place.

and we pay the tax
Only if the salary is over the tax threshold, or they have another job. See Introduction to PAYE
For tax year 2010-11 the Lower Earnings Limit is £97 a week, so if paying less than that and they don't have any other income, then you don't need to operate PAYE.