au pair

[nat35]

Hi,
we are thinking about getting an au pair. Can someone please let me know what is the going rate ( for central London). Also what are the reasonable hours/duties etc. How long you expect an au pair to stay with the family?

Thanks

£75-£85 for 25 hours, plus some way of getting around (if in Zone 1 it has to be a monthly Oyster really) and £10 a month on a mobile phone.

Most au pairs start sometime over the summer and stay for about a year, if you are looking for someone starting soon that may mean they only stay for 6 or 8 months as in September they tend to move on into FT education/job/travel etc.

Mine is on £70 per week for about 15 hrs childcare plus 2 weekday evening babysitting, but we are just outside of the zones.
Her friends in zone 1 appear to get less and work more hours, but their travel costs are much less of course.
I add £10 PAYG on her phone, and she can put a reasonable amount onto the Tescos delivery order for 'her' food.
Duties - she does 6.30am to school drop off, so gives DS breakfast, gets uniform on and they cycle to school. Once a week she picks up from after-school activities, they cycle home, have a little tea and play. She also puts the hoover round the living areas and DS's bedroom, wipes down surfaces in kitchen and DS's bathroom, tidies toys and hangs out laundry. Every so often if I'm held up at work or there is an emergency she'll pop DS through the bath and get him ready for bed.
Babysitting-wise it's once DS is in bed [7.30ish] until midnight at the latest, but normally just until 9 or so so I can attend PTA meetings, zumba etc.
I said a minimum of 6 months stay.

Just curious - don't the Oyster card and the mobile phone count as benefit in kind and thus taxable?

Not if they're principally for work and the value for work equal to or greater than the monetary value. So if I require daily bus journeys to/from school at £1 each = £20/week and a monthly pass is only £19 the extra use is incidental.

Smart phones are BIK though I think.

Ah OK so you can't justify it if au pair would do all duties on foot.

I'm sure there would be some duties which could necessitate a trip on public transport - not necessarily with the children

In reality I don't think it's a significant enough amount on £70 a week to go over the threshold.

Nowhere near central London but we pay £70 a week, provide mountain bike (small city, very bikeable) and leisure use of car with notice, mobile phone contract, gym membership, one evening off for English classes 6-9, and another one off as far as possible for rugby practice 6-8. AP picks up from bus stop 4 days a week and looks after after school for anything between an hour and a half to 4 hours. AP sometimes also collects school friends for playdates off the bus too, and holds the fort for about an hour until one of us gets back. Takes into school 2 mornings a week, working from 8-9. Cooks kids tea, but also hangs out washing, wipes down surfaces and empties dishwasher some of the time - depends who gets there first. Has been known to put out the bins and make kids packed lunches, but we don't ask for this, AP just does it when notices it needs doing. We specified two nights of weekday babysitting a month but hardly ever use this. We pay for weekend babysitting at the local going rate, but again hardly ever use this.

Thanks everyone, you helped a lot. we were thinking about summer start hopefully for 1yr. As I was expectiong to pay at least £100 this is great news. And The duties I had in mind fit in perfectly with your descriptions, school pick up, play, supper, some housework etc.
One more questions what is the best way of looking for one and how much in advance? Should I loopk for someone who is alreary in the country?

Thanks again

Keep you rate under the tax threshold as well to make life so much easier!

I think it depends what nationality you are thinking of, as school/college/uni will finish at different times in different countries, so it would depend whether you needed them from June/July or September.
Some of the au-pairs I was conversing with were looking to set things up 6-8 months in advance, some were looking to start in a month or so. If you are using a website, just state your start month really clearly and don't let yourself get swayed from it.

£70 sounds very good. We are looking for August/September start so I will start looking in few months, fingers crossed I will find someone suitable :)