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Paid childcare

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

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Original poster

Paying nanny's parking charges?

48 replies

Nannysearcher · 15/08/2012 19:57

I have just been recruiting for a nanny.
One candidate said that she would like to drive to us for the 2 days a week we would need her, but we did flag up that parking costs (on street) are £10 per day and that, while we could make a contribution, we could not really cover that as we would not cover the public transport costs for other candidates.

She has come back and said that she has often had her travel costs to work paid and that lots of other jobs are offering to pay travel costs and parking vouchers.

Is this true/reasonable? Inner London.

OP posts:

callaird · 15/08/2012 21:23

Not to and from work! Of course you pay travel costs during working hours but she should pay her costs to and from work.

I can't think of any employers that would pay for an employee to get to work.

I also wouldn't offer to cover her parking. I would see if I could apply for a parking permit though, but she would have to pay at least half of it.

I'm a nanny by the way. When I worked in London (years ago) they got me a permit for my car and I paid for half of it but there was never anywhere close by to park so I stopped using my car.

Original poster

Nannysearcher · 15/08/2012 21:29

Thanks, that is what I thought! Would it be a taxable benefit if travel costs were to be paid, rather like a company car?

Unfortunately the parking permit route is not an option. You can only get a permit for cars registered at your address- very strict! Literally the only way to leave your car on the street is to be a resident or use a visitor's voucher at £10 per day.

OP posts:

Original poster

Nannysearcher · 15/08/2012 21:31

Interested in views from any nannies or nanny employers! Thanks.

OP posts:

BobbiFleckman · 15/08/2012 21:35

do you want / need her to use the car? if yes, contribute to the parking and if not, it's her own travel cost to / from work.

Original poster

Nannysearcher · 15/08/2012 22:05

No need to use the car at all - activities are all within walking distance and we have three bus routes going past the end of our road.

OP posts:

confusedpixie · 15/08/2012 22:06

You shouldn't pay her parking fees if she chooses to take the car to work.

Saying that though, I've been driving to work since I moved house in February and moved to an area where my commute would be roughly an hour by public transport (15mins tops by car!), at first I used their drive as they had promised me use of it when I started work if I needed it, but in the warmer months they've been giving me visitor parking permits for parking nearby because they want the drive accessible for playing in (it's gated, so we leave the door open and let 20mo have free access iyswim?)

If you really like this nanny (and can get visitor permits) could you compromise and offer to give her x amount of visitor permits a month instead of her having to pay parking costs?

Original poster

Nannysearcher · 15/08/2012 22:12

The problem is that the visitor permits are the parking costs. I dread to think what meter parking would be!

Visitor permits are £10 per day = £20 per 2 day week = £960 per 48 week working year!

Looking at it another way, I could employ a non-parking nanny for almost an extra hour a day for the cost of saving this one a bus ride. There is a bus from where she lives to about ten minutes walk away - would take about half an hour.

OP posts:

MrAnchovy · 15/08/2012 22:19

Paying for travel to and from work is a taxable (and NIable) benefit, but paying for parking is not.

confusedpixie · 15/08/2012 22:20

Ah. Sorry! I thought you meant that the meter parking was that much!

What are her reasons for not wanting to use public transport? She shouldn't be going for jobs where she can't afford either the time or the money for getting to and from work really

janesun · 15/08/2012 22:29

I agree- she should be willing to pay/ travel to get to work so she probably shouldn't have even applied.

However, it may be a perk she has received in the past and I think it's worth considering if you really like her and can afford it yourself. The right person to fit your family is hard to come by.

HolyOlympicNamechangeBatman · 16/08/2012 00:21

She should definitely pay her costs to get to/from work.

I know a couple of nannies in the position where they need/want to drive to work, but it's permit only parking and the families do provide the parking permits (West London). I don't think they cost £10 a day here though!

eastmidlandsnightnanny · 16/08/2012 08:41

I get the feeling from this one issue if has put you off her anyway and therefore wont be an issue as you are not going to recruit her.

Maybe make sure all applicants are aware either from job advert or agency make it clear that there is no parking at the home and therefore nanny will be expected to use other means to get to work ie public transport/lift etc at their own cost. Visitor permits are available at £10 a day which if the nanny choses to drive to work she/he will need to pay for. A car is not needed for work purposes.

confusedpixie · 16/08/2012 09:01

Also, another thought: Are your parking permits restricted? My bosses can only get 100 or something like that a year, which is why I'm only going to use them in the warmer months.

BobbiFleckman · 16/08/2012 09:04

anchovy- are you sure about that? we had to start paying for our work car park as it fell under the taxable benefit in kind heading (changed about 4 yrs ago or so?) and from the tax return I do for our nanny it would definitely be a listed item of perks paid for on her behalf

OP you're west London, there's no shortage of qualified nannies in the area and if you feel she's pushing you on this before she's even started, I suspect she'll continue to push the boundaries once on the job... would you pick up her costa coffee habit on expenses?

BobbiFleckman · 16/08/2012 09:05

it also suggests she's pretty lazy if she can't be arsed to take the bus for a short hop... would she make it on time if she had to use public transport?

Original poster

Nannysearcher · 16/08/2012 09:17

She is quite a good candidate, but not totally sure about her. This puts me off, I had a whiff of 'would prefer a full time post' and every time I have proposed a time for either first or second interview she can't do it and proposes alternatives.

OP posts:

BobbiFleckman · 16/08/2012 09:20

move on. Full time jobs are apparently like gold dust at the moment so you could well be right - lots of nannies being made redundant and chasing the full time jobs. In terms of supply / demand, you're in a good position where you are. I saw scores of people both times we've hired a nanny - just good enough isn't good enough

Original poster

Nannysearcher · 16/08/2012 09:21

Oh, she also doesn't have an enhanced crb. She has been a private nanny for a number of years, not Ofsted registered. Is it likely that this would never have come up before?

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 16/08/2012 09:23

I think she's having a laugh, tbh.

The only time I can think a nanny's costs to work being paid would be if she were "live-in" as in accommodation was provided, but the accommodation was some distance away. Which, in London would be a very unusual situation.

tiggersreturn · 16/08/2012 10:51

Personally I don't interview people who can't get to me easily on public transport. Unless the nanny using her car is a part of the job then there is no obligation to provide parking. The attitude is not a positive one.

MrAnchovy · 16/08/2012 11:24

Yes I am sure. There has been an exemption from income tax for provision of or the reimbursement of cost of parking at or near the workplace since 1988 (now s237 ITEPA 2003) and National Insurance was aligned in 2001. This is quite clear from all HMRC documentation and many employers take advantage of this provision to provide salary sacrifice arrangements for parking season tickets.

Note however that this exemption does NOT apply to other parking e.g. at a station near your home so that you can take the train to work.

I am not sure what you mean by a "tax return" for your nanny, if you mean form P11D that would be the wrong place to report it even if it were taxable, it would have to go through the payslip.

It seems to me that the only thing that happened about four years ago was that your employer decided to save some money :(

Blondeshavemorefun · 16/08/2012 11:38

i think she is cheeky asking for travelling costs to and from work, but not in asking for permit to be able to park at work

most of us nannies work 11/12hr day so driving by car would be 15mins extra either way but if travelling by bus then maybe be an extra 60mins each way with changes and then if bus was late or you arrive home 5 mins late the nanny would have to wait another 15mins to get bus home - thus taking working day much longer

if you like her then i would offer 50/50 and tbh if i liked the job i would happily accept that - ie £5 less a day wages

then again i wouldnt take a job without a car during working hours and have to 'bus' it

2plus1 · 16/08/2012 11:40

We had some similar parking permit considerations for our nanny when we moved to our current home. There are two permanent permits for cars registered to our property so the car reg doc has to reflect that on application. The council allow a visitor permit but they do not cover the whole 10 hour period of the restriction so the vehicle would have to be moved during the working day (def not practical!). The day permits cost £6 each 24hr period but you are restricted to 60 per year so clearly not enough for a 3 day/week nanny. I did enquire about the 'carers' permit but as my children don't have a medical condition that is not allowed. The only way have got around this is to move our 'family' car off the drive and park it outside our house on the permit section whilst the nanny drives up and parks on our driveway (hence she no longer needs a permit). The annoying thing for us is that we have our car left on the road where it is more vulnerable than on our private driveway. If we were going to have to buy a visitor permit at £30 per year I think we would have absorbed that cost as it would have been 'our' permit for others eg family members, to use on her days off. Therefore she would have to leave it behind every evening and collect in the morning. Likewise it would be remove if she was to leave as it is registered to our address for any infringements to be sent to

Viviennemary · 16/08/2012 11:47

It would worry me that she may be a bit 'entitled'. I don't think I'd offer to pay the parking as such but might incorporate some of it into a slightly higher salary if you thought she was going to be a very good nanny. And then if parking fees double or something like that you won't be liable. I'm always a pessimist.

nannynick · 16/08/2012 12:56

Is it doable at all - thats the first thing to check. As others have said, there can be limits on number of visitor permits and in the parking times.
If you were to provide the visitor permit, I preseme you as the homeowner has to buy them, not the visitor... is that right? So could salary be lowered to reflect that cost?
Keep looking at other candidates, someone else may be just as good but happy to come via public transport.

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