Ok, so a thread about a thread, but not in a bad way

[Saltire]

If you employ a nanny full time, and she goes on long term sick or maternity leave, does the employer pay her mat pay/sick pay and the cost of the new nanny too?

Genuine question just being curious

The employer claims back Statutory sick/maternity pay
Maternity pay is a bit more than she earns; sick pay is a bit less

I think

As a small employer, maternity pay is recovered at 104.5% This can also often be funded in advance.

Ok thank you. Like I say was just being curious

SMP is reclaimable at 104.5% for small employers. SSP (and all other statutory payments) are reclaimable up to a point, depending how big the employer's liability for NICs is but most nanny employers will get the full amount or nearly.

You do need to pay the full cost of a replacement though.

I'm curious as to what thread prompted this one.

It was the one from the lady who's little boy is at pre school and she wondered what, if anything she could get the nanny to do while he was there.
She mnetioned that her regular nanny was on ML. It just made me wonder if people had to pay out two lots of wages if the nanny went on ML.

Ah yes that thread. Suppose the answer is sort of they do... but they get 104.5% of the SMP back from HMRC and can apply to get that in advance.

I am that lady!

In our case, our original nanny (the one who is on maternity leave) is only entitled to SMP, and we have claimed all of that back from Inland Revenue. It was paid to us in advance in full, and we pay our original nannnyduring her matenity leave at the end of each calender month as per her contract. Nannies (like all empoyees) also accrue holiday during their maternity leave. If nanny comes back to work afer maternity leave, she can choose to take the accrued holiday or be paid in lieu. If she doesn't come back to work, she is paid for the accrued holiday.

Luckily, we didn't need to go through a nanny agency (which is how we recruited our original nanny) to find her maternity cover as we knew her already.

Hi thanks for answering. I hope you don't think i was having a go or anything, I was just genuinely curious, as I really thought parents would have to pay twice

Saltire, Didn't mind at all. As an employer, you essentially have two nanny employees at the same time. So that means giving birthday/Christmas etc gifts to both, and possibly having to pay an agency for a temporary nanny (as you can only employ maternity cover on a temporary or fixed term cover basis, as the permanent nannying job still belongs to the original nanny), but they are the only duplicate costs I can see in having one nanny on maternity leave and one nanny doing the nannying job.

On the non-financial side though, you have a situation where you may not know for up to a year whether the original nanny is coming back to her job. So DC forms a bond with new nanny, and may then have to pick up again with old nanny when she comes back. And new nanny doesn't have the same job security as she would if she was a permanent employee. Its a difficult situation to be honest.