How do I hire an Au pair?

[Kendodd]

Do I have to pay tax etc for them?

They would be living with us and working about 20 hours per week.

Do I have to pay tax etc for them?

Depends on the pay and also on any other work they may do (check immigration paperwork to see if they are permitted to do any other work, many are these days).

You have an obligation to operate PAYE if your employee:
earns the National Insurance Lower Earnings Limit or above (for 2010/11 tax year this is £97 per week)
or if your employee has another job.

See HMRC: PAYE - Intro: Basics

If they are only working 20 hours per week then you're not looking at really more than ~£60 or £65 per week I'd have thought. Unless they already have another job then you don't need to pay tax & NI on this level of earnings. The link that Nick has provided tells you what to do if they do have a job already..

Thanks

So would I just hand them some cash each week? What about contracts payslips etc?

Contract would be useful so you both knew the terms of the agreement. Is their level of English sufficient to read it.

If you search on here using Advanced Search, limiting the search to just this part of Mumsnet, then you will find message threads about contracts. Not sure there are any specifically to do with Au-Pairs, but a nanny contract would be very similar. There are also many threads on here about Au-Pairs generally, often mentioning things that went well and things that were not so great.

Payslips could be very simple and be done in a self-duplicating book (so you retain one copy). It would state things like employers name, the date, amount of pay, person being paid.

Don't think there is any requirement to provide payslips though.

There is a requirement to provide payslips, although the only information it must include is the amount of gross pay, itemised deductions, and the amount of net pay. So if there is no tax or NI, it only needs to have one number on it!

Don't think you need to produce fancy pay slips though. In the past when we couldn't pay into a bank account (if it hadn't been set up) we use a sheet that has the week number and date on it. When we give our au pair her weekly money we both initial the sheet. This has been satisfactory as evidence for paying when she's gone on to apply for her blue card.

I think that as an au pair is technically a worker you have to provide a written statement of employment particulars (aka a contract) within 2 months of them starting.

You do definitely need to have something in writing.

OP: a contract is there to protect you as much as comply with the technicalities of any bureaucratic requirements in the UK (asuming you are here.)

Esp with au pairs whose English may not be great giving them something in writing which they can review before they accept the job is really important. We issue an invitation letter but it has all the details we would include in a contract and then follow up with an email: "have you read it do you have any questions?" I live in fear of someone accepting a job with us who was only understanding 50% of what we were on about at the interview stage.

We paid our au pairs in cash, no payslips required. Your au pair won't be earning enough for tax. We didn't have contracts in the strict sense of the word, but we certainly made very sure the au pair understood what was expected of her and what she could expect of us - in writing - before she started. Au pairs are not employees.

We had great success using www.aupair-world.net which is essentially a meeting place for au pairs & families. You use the site to start contacting potential au pairs and find one you like.

We won't go into the au pairs are not employees debate again but in a nutshell they are workers and entitled to a contract. Their employed status was confirmed by the ECJ - summary. Unless you have a multi-staff household there is very little difference between the status of a worker and that of an employee.

Info on written statement from Direct.gov - you have 2 months but as Harriet said it's often better to send a contract beforehand, it lets them find someone who can explain it to them before they arrive if necessary.

And as mra said there is a requirement to provide payslips (and he should know :)).

OK, well I will rephrase that - in real life, none of our au pairs asked for payslips and we didn't bother with them - not much point in doing paperwork neither party is interested in.

I am a noob here so haven't seen any au pair/employee discussions.

By far the most important thing with selecting and getting on with your au pair is communication - and that includes before you start with them. We rejected one otherwise lovely girl because her English was so poor.

I am a noob here so haven't seen any au pair/employee discussions.

Well, to paraphrase, an au pair is your employee and is entitled to certain rights under employment law. If you don't know what these are, here is a good place to start.