what is reasonable milage costs for a nanny?

[willowstar]

Hello, we have a nanny starting next week and she will be driving my little girl around.

it has been a while since i drove for work so I have no idea how much is paid per mile, any ideas?

many thanks

40p is the reconmended amount

may be worth checking/capping long jouneys

costs do add up but depends what/where she is going - for example I do 70miles on a Tuesday doing nursery/school/2 tumbletots/collecting school/nursery and then tennis after school - but I get a car or wld cost my MB tons :)

another friend did 200 a week minimum as school was 10miles each way so did 40 a day let alone anything else

40p is the maximum amount before it's a taxable benefit I think. It's known as the Approved Mileage Rate, HMRC: Rates - Travel and is for the first 10,000 miles after which it then drops. It has been the same rate for many many years - so does not seem to take much account for increases in actual fuel costs.

Now what is a reasonable mileage is quite another matter. I do quite a lot of miles, partly due to not being in a major city and partly due to wanting to take the children to see places of interest - castles, various museums, historic houses, hands-on science centres etc.

The rule I have is if the journey is over around 50 miles round trip, then I'll put a claim in for 1/3 of the actual mileage. I don't want my boss to say we can't go on long trips... thus I reduce the mileage claim so there is not as much objection to long distance travel.

Keep in mind that your nanny will probably do some things you would not do. Children learn from that - they get to see more of the world around them.

I use a spreadsheet to track my mileage (in combination with a printed notebook in the car) and send the mileage each month to my boss via e-mail. By itemising trips, you can see where your nanny is going - which places are regular weekly visit and which are more one-off adventure trips out.

Last week the eldest child didn't like any of my suggestions for places to go, so I foolishly said we would take a mystery trip. I then had to think of somewhere to go, whilst driving. Hmm... ended up going down some caves. That's something you don't do everyday!

i always got 40p per mile

wouldnt drive my car for any less

I have found that nannies always want 40p per mile, however, my husband did the maths on what it costs when we were contemplating it. If the nanny does 50 miles per week, in a small car (i.e. vauxhall corsa type) petrol cost would be about £6.00 per week. The insurance for business was an additonal £60.00 per year. This makes £372.00 per year. Plus wear and tear on the car of say £5.00 per week (my husband says this is very generous). All added up it boils down to 25p per mile.

If you were to work it out on manufacturors miles per gallon it may well be £6 of petrol a week. But most of us don't use our cars to optimize fuel consumption. Most journies a nanny makes will be shortish and stop/start town driving. My calculations for actual petrol costs for 50 miles a week in my 1.6 Rover are just under £9 - so not the best fuel consumption I could possibly get from my car. So you need to make sure you allow for this when paying your nannies mileage.

However, I do agree that a lot of nannies want the 40p per mile even if they are driving a small car. A 1.1 Peugeot is going to use a lot less fuel per mile than a 2.4 Saab - so I feel it is unfair to demand the 40p if you have a small car. I get 30p per mile which I feel covers my petrol costs and the wear and tear.

I also recall reading somewhere that if you get paid less than 40p per mile you can submit a claim to the tax office for the difference. Not something I have done - does anyone know more about this?

Shelzy i do not agree with your husband, i have a small car and you would not do 50 miles for 6 pounds, most nanny journeys are popping around which uses loads of petrol, i have just spent hours hoovering and getting chewing gum of my seats. Most people get 40p a mile why should nannies get less ?

40 pence per mile is supposed to include wear and tear and services/MOT's etc.

I always have a nanny car though, my second job, boss brought me a car as mine was a deathtrap little rusty and I have never owed a car since!

owned, obviously!

40p. Kids puke, get mucky feet on car and crumbs etc, no matter how hard you stry they do mess it up.

I feel 40p is a fair amount. If you don't want to pay that much then you should provide a car for your nanny to use. Personally I would never use my car for work except to help out in emergencies as kids wreck cars.

It's not just wear and tear through driving but there are things like eating, dirty shoes, extra friends in cars, smeary hands on windows, opening doors into trees/other cars etc. This plus cleaning all amounts costs so your nanny should be paid a fair amount which is 40p

nick, you are too kind, if you do a trip pf 60miles, you would only charge for 20?

agree others get 40p so why shouldnt nannies

wear and tear and small jouneys use more petrol then long haul motorway driving

and yes works car gets in a state with 3 dc and a dog, and generally i wont let the children eat in it as feel that they dont need to and i treat my works car the way i would treat mine

but yes gets trashed through muddy wet/snowy feet, kicking back of seats, dents in the upholstery from where car seats dig in,dents in doors from flinging them back into open space something,leta lone if they are sick in it

any child that is sick, then car needs to be cleaned at employers exspense - nothing worse than dried on puke, smelling in hot summers or through using heaters on in winter

what happens if you have an accident when out with employers' children btw? presumably this is covered by nanny's own insurance?

if in employers car then their insurance - i have something in my contract stating that regardless of fault that my employers pay the axcess costs etc - but surenot all would agree to that

guess if in nannys own car then they pay

thanks everyone, 40p it is then :-)

Sings - if the nanny is driving their own car and has an accident, with luck the nannies insurance will pay for damage to the car. It will also have some provision for damage to passengers.

However it isn't until a claim is made that you really know what is covered. If a child is seriously injured and will require life-long specialist care, would that be covered? The answer to that is - we don't know. In the same way as you don't know if such an event happened when you are driving your car and a passenger gets injured.
We all hope that insurance will take care of such things... We all hope we never have such an accident.

The more information the insurer has the more protection that should give, as it should make it harder for them to refuse a claim due to them not being told something IYSWIM.

nannynick/blondes - thanks for the further info.