Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Help! Need advice on solution for 'self employed' nanny

7 replies

fangmaboobies · 06/11/2010 23:29

Sorry, a bit of a long post but sleep deprived and NEED your opinions/advice on this:

A few weeks back & all of a sudden I found a nannyshare partner, both of us first-timers to hiring a nanny.

The nanny we verbally agreed to hire has in the past been registered to be self employed. She asked for £2 more than all the other candidate nannies as gross pay if she was self-employed and £1.50 more than all the others if we wanted to PAYE.

At the time we all thought fine, let's go the self-employed route. It's only now, just as we need to finalise her contract that we realise that she HAS to be PAYE and of course that this is a lot more expensive if we pay what she asked for. We are a week into settling sessions and should have contracts ready early next week so she can officially start work the next.

I know, we are stupid/naive, but it's been less than a fortnight since interviews and I have only just had time to look into it.

The other half of the nannyshare is saying that they now think it's too much to PAYE her even at the lower rate the other nannies requested and is proposing 2 days PAYE at less than she wants and 1 day cash in hand at what she wants.

Apart from having no idea whether she would accept that, we really do not want to do any cash in hand and want to PAYE.

We are struggling to find a compromise solution and wondering whether to just cut out now before we get even further down the road. We are already saying 'but she gets on with the kids really well'.

OOH I feel like a jerk for what will appear to be a last minute u-turn to the nanny. OTOH she has quite a lot of experience so I suspect she knows that she must be employed/on PAYE - her pricing structure seems to be an attempt to make the self employed route more attractive.

I am really at the stage of tearing my hair out while kicking myself at this situation and would so grateful for any advice you have!! I am so tired I am going round in circles.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
nannynick · 06/11/2010 23:49

Make a firm offer with regard to the salary and stick to it. So offer a Gross wage which you can afford to pay (remembering to include the Employers NI in your calculations).

Either the nanny accepts that wage, or they don't.

Is she already working for you? Sounds as though she might be... so if you terminate the arrangement, what will happen about paying for work already done? You may need to do that as a payment direct to her and for her to declare that as self-employed income.

Treeesa · 06/11/2010 23:54

If she was sharing 40 hours between the two of you, then is she really worth £1700 a year more than the other candidates? Our package holiday last year only cost a bit more than that..!

I would just be honest with her. Say you've not done this before. Don't want to pay her cash in hand or as self-employed and want to do everything by the book. Say you hadn't taken into account the additional costs of NI (pension in future) etc. and make a written offer with a new lower amount.

Don't forget you may have to pay more household insurance and both of you will have to think about employee liability insurance too.

If she is worth it and you fear you won't find another nanny to touch her then I guess you have to influence your friend.

I'm sure there will be many other people available if she dioesn't want to reconsider.. I think generally a nanny share will want slightly more than a dedicated nanny for one family - just for the extra hassle and the risk of losing one of the contracts.

fangmaboobies · 06/11/2010 23:59

Your suggestions are exactly what we want to do but the problem is the other side of the nannyshare are now saying they don't want to!! Looks as if we are back to square one and need a new nannyshare partner too. :(

Treesa- it's not even £1700, as we're talking net so that plus tax & NI on top!

Of course any work she's done for us we are going to pay her as we all agreed (as self employed).

OP posts:
Simbacatlives · 07/11/2010 00:06

Are you totally sure she can't be self employed. She is working for 2 people as part of the share. Does she work for anyone else as well (babysitting etc)

firefrakkers · 07/11/2010 04:31

It's not as simple as working for more than one person. It's about who is in control of the way business is run, who sets the hours, whether she can take days off without having them approved, whether she could have other clients simultaneously etc.

Nannies are typically employed, even the ones sho try to claim they have approval to be self-employed usually tick more employed boxes than not.

HarrietTheSpook · 07/11/2010 08:54

OP
This woman knows the score. Do NOT feel guilty telling her she has to be an employee. And walk away from this situation. When it suits her she may conclude it's in her interests to be an employee and she'd have you over a barrel. Particularly if she's walking around with an employment contract which proves how much she was working for you.

fangmaboobies · 07/11/2010 19:15

Thank you all, by the time I got up this morning I was pretty much aligned with Harriet's opinion.

I have told everyone involved I'm out of the arrangement and I'm leaving them to it.

I don't want to start a working relationship with someone who may have been trying to mislead us and I can't really stay in a partnership with someone who is trying to pressure me to agree to pay cash in hand.

Phew, I feel relieved, even though I have no childcare tomorrow and have to start all over again!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread