Advice needed - live out nanny going to be live in due to relocation

[longhairedchiefofstaff]

I am looking for some advice with regard to our nanny who is going to become live in when we relocate in 6 weeks. Currently she works 4 days per week and is paid £18k gross. We are having to relocate due to work at short notice and she has agreed to come with us on a trial basis until Christmas and be live-in for the same days.
Should I offer to pay her travel expenses? My husband doesn't think we should as we will be providing board and lodging but I feel so lucky that she is coming with us that I feel we should offer her petrol money. Also should we amend her contract. What is peoples experience with live in with regard to working hours? Currently she works 0745 to 1815.

Thanks for your advice.

is she going to be live-in only for the days she works, or live-in full-time? if live-in only for the day she works, i think you really will have to pay her travel expenses. and you will have to change her contract as well, i am fairly sure.

what happens at christmas then? is that just a cut off for your trial, or are you likely to move back?

As a nanny I would be happy to continue working the 4 days and live in for those days at the £18k - It would be nice to provide money for transport between home/work but I wouldn't expect it.

Thanks for your replies. We are relocating at least for the next three years and won't be coming back to where we are now. So in effect this is a permanent move.
She is going to live in for the 4 days she is working so arrive Sunday evening ready to work from Monday morning to Thursday evening when she'll go back home. The new house is about 120 miles away so it is quite a drive.
We agreed Christmas as a point at which to review the arrangement. She understands that we will need 4 weeks notice to terminate her contract if she is finding it too much.
I agree that it only seems fair to offer her travel expenses. I just have to persuade my husband!

Think more information is needed... such as will she be living in all 7 days of the week? If not, how far away will she be travelling from?

You mention petrol money - so that means she has a car. You don't normally pay for travel to/from work BUT in a relocation situation a large company may well be paying some of the extra costs. You are not a big company... but that does not stop you from offering something extra. Maybe sell that to your DH along the lines of: it would cost x amount to get a new nanny, so instead of spending x amount on hiring a new nanny, you could give it to your existing nanny spread over a period of time.

Create a temporary contract to cover the new probationary/trial period. Both of you will want to have things amended such as it reflects the new situation... and you may both want a shorter notice period (such as statutory minimum). It's not a new contract as such... but a continuation of the existing, just a new set of terms.

You may want to add some additional terms to cover the living in part of the job. Such as conditions on what they can/can't do in your house - inviting people over to stay for example, things done off duty (drinking, smoking), food arrangements, clothes washing/drying. I don't do live-in work, so with luck someone will be able to suggest things that need to be formalised in that regard.

about 120 miles... so say maybe 250 miles a week. Fuel cost - probably £25. Wear & Tear and other associated costs are hard to factor in.

You will go over the 10,000 miles a year part of Approved Mileage Rate - Not sure if that can be used anyway, as it may or may not be business travel - see here - travel to a temporary workplace looks like it is covered... but your situation is not temporary, once the trial period is over.

Not sure if it's relevant or not... but the Accomodation Offset for NMW is £4.61 per day. Your 18k gross is above NMW at the sound of it, so not likely to be an issue. Though the offset figure may be useful to mention to DH - as that is how much the powers at be consider the accommodation is worth! Least that's how I read it - someone may well know different... I don't know a lot about Accommodation Offset.

Maybe look at salary review for after the trial period, so that the new salary takes account of it being a 4-day live-in job.

I lived in with my 1st job (for 2mths) after MB accepted a job 100miles away

I went to settle in children to new area and school for older (they were 2&7) and help find a new nanny

they asked if I would consider staying with them but I had my bf now dh and tbh I didn't want to live in

I drove down on Sunday night 2hrs and again back Friday 4ish - MB came home early so I could leave. Travel was usually 2/3hrs

yes they paid for my petrol which was roughly just under a tank there and back - and tbh I think it is rather stingy of your dh to refuse to pay travel costs

this nanny is doing you a favour with continual childcare and giving up her evenings for you while she lives in

it is a big step for your nanny to decide to live in and tbh I wouldn't be suprised if she decided at Xmas that it was too much for her ESP if she has her own house and bf/dh let alone friends and parents local to where your house was

I think you have to pay travel expenses, really - it's a temporary move (potentially) for her so it's not like a nanny applying for a live-in job from the off when the nanny would not need to get personal accommodation, your nanny will still have rent/mortgage as usual.

now i think about it, i'm not actually so sure. if you change your nanny's contractual location to your new address, then she can't (under IR rules) claim travel between her home address and her new contractual location. i know this because my dear company has just changed my contractual location to Birmingham (105 miles away) when they shut my local office. now if i travel to Birmingham, i can't claim mileage...

if you cant claim mileage maybe a small monthly pay rise just even to cover her mileage for the month

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going to offer her £25 per week to cover petrol and we'll reassess after a couple of weeks.

glad you decided to pay towards petrol :)

Petrol costs are more like £10 for every 50 miles.

IR rates are 40p a mile. So that would be £100 a week for return journey. Not that, (according to the IR) if you change her contractual location you should pay it anyway, but just fyi...

40p a mile is what we pay the nanny for any run-around mileage which is not her commute to either my ex's house or my house (but we do pay her mileage between the two places).