Nanny pregnancy to-be dilemma

[larlylou]

Help! We recently employed a super Nanny in May and are thoroughly pleased with her. Pre-school grapevine gossip has got back to me from 3 people now to tell me she is planning to have a baby with her husband. This is great news for them and I would be thrilled for her but I am also, as an employer, devastated at this news...wrong I know. Does anyone know where we stand if she was to become pregnant, how much do we pay for mat leave, what on earth happens to childcare....? Has anyone been in this situation and is there anything that we should consider? I'm dreading losing her and have no idea how we would afford to pay for her maternity leave and additional care for the children.

Im not 100% sure at all, but im afraid you have to pay smp, 90% of weekly wage for first 6 wks, then about £108 a wk or 90% of wages for remaining 20 wks, or whichever is less. I think you claim this back from government though, but dont know how or when! And untill she says she is pg, which may take a while, you wont know if she plans to return to work or not and how soon.

Would you want her to return with the baby? And I dont know where you would stand in the law, if you have to allow her to return or not, sorry, not much help!

dont get worked up just ask her
say so and so was saying your planning to start a family soon........
maybe nanny does not want to return to work with her baby maybe she wants a year out

Whatever you do don't make her redundant as she can sue you. In my next to last nanny job I would have been able to go back with my child but the family moved away. I am sure there are websites to help with this and the previous poster is right about you claiming back some costs. Good luck and start saving for when she does tell you!

You have to pay her 90% for 6 weeks, then £108 as someone else already said. This is reimbursable unless you employ 50+ household staff. No idea how you go about this, but I'm sure someone else will be along soon...

You have to reserve her job for her if she wants to return in 6 months. You have to reserve an equivalent job for her if she wants to return within 12 months. However, you do not have to allow her to bring her baby back. How old are your kids? Is a new baby compatible with the ages of yours?

Last but not least, if she does come bak with the baby, you might want to consider treating it as a nanny share (at a reduced rate) as your kids will not get the attention they had before. And, the reduction in going to a nanny share will surely be less than her paying for childcare. But then she might not even want to come back...

Oh, and you can make her redundant, but not BECAUSE she is pregnant. Is she on a fixed term contract? If so, you could just let the contract expire and that would be the end of your obligation, however this wouldn't be very nice and I wouldn't advise it.

i think a lot depends on the age of your children and if and when she gets pregnant. it could not happen for another year.
i worked nannying for 5years before having my 1st child and i returned back to work after my maternity leave, after my 2nd child i went back after 6 wks. i gave up work when my lo was just over a year old as i felt it was too much for my children.i know lots of employers who employ nannies with their own children and the majority of the time it works out well.

Thanks for your replies. My kids are 3 and 1. She is 40, recently married and, like you say, could take some time. She has been a nanny for years and years and dedicated all her time to her families, I think now its time she dedicates some time to herself but unfortunately at our expense (not necesarily financially but at the loss of someone wonderful and having to find a replacement). I would definitely let her bring her baby to work with her as by then, ds will have started school so she would only have my dd around and then we could reduce payment perhaps, something to discuss but I don't reckon she will come back anyhow. I was just a little confused as to how the hell you are to pay for one on mat leave and pay for another to look after your kids, its a stretch as it is paying for one!

larlylou, it is reclaimable - guess DTI would be the people to ask. But as she isn't even preggers yet I wouldn't panic.

If you're a small employer, the govt will hand over the money in advance. You then have to remember to deduct the tax and NI before paying her. If you call the Revenue's small business helpline, they'll do the sums with you. This is important because they'll tell you to phone your tax office to ask for the maternity pay to be paid in advance. In my case the number was permanently busy so I wrote to them and they sent a cheque, but no explanation of how they'd calculated the amount, so it was very helpful that the helpline had talked me through the sums.

Thanks Dannie, that is a huge help. I know I am panicking in advance as she isn't actually pregnant yet but I do worry after only having just sorted out childcare and look at the pesimistic side of things sometimes. I just need to reassure dh now as he thinks its the end of the world!

It is complicated, though, because you want to be a textbook Good Employer, but also it's really messing up your life. My former nanny came back temporarily to do my nanny's maternity leave, which is great for now but I can't make any plans beyond the next month or so because I'm not sure what childcare I'll have. And I can hardly start harassing a woman with a two-month old baby who's just moved house about when she plans to come back to work, cos I'm quite sure she has no idea!

larlylou - don;t panic - this is really not as bad as you think. first thing - you don;t loose out at all financially - the maternity leave payments are reimbursed in full, plus a couple of hundred quid which is intended to cover any incidental costs involved in finding a replacement. Do you use a payroll agency? mine was excellent at sorting it out - but it was one thing (unlike wf tax credits...) that was very easy anyway. you just send the IR that form she will get from the midwife confirming that she's pg. You get the mat pay in one lump sum, which you then pay out monthly to the nanny (so you have to remember that your bank account is not as healthy as it seems!).

The difficult bit is the issue of a replacement. I was lucky in that my nanny knew she was not going to come back - and I 100 per cent trusted her not to change her mind (technically she didn;t have to decide - when on mat leave you just need to give notice about when you want to return - any verbal agreement made before hand isn't enforceable). This meant I was able to advertise for a permanent nanny. The risk in doing this was nanny1 changing her mind - which would have left me with 2 nannies. I have no idea what I would have done. If your nanny thinks she might want to come back then unfortunately you will have to get a temporary replacement - not ideal for your kids, but there's nothing else you can do. Personally I think you'll find enough people interested in a temporary job. Esp as it might turn into a permanent one if she doesn't return.

If she wants to return she might want to bring her baby with her. You do not have to accept this if it is not what you want. The job you offered her and the contract she has got with you (I assume...) doesn;t entitle her to do this. If she wanted to return and you didn;t want her to bring the baby then she - like everyone else - would need to arrange childcare. She could well choose to resign instead. However I'm quite a big fan of nannies bringing babies to work. partly cos I love babies, because I think it's good for kids to have a playmate (when she/he is older) and because you can actually negotiate a change in pay - most nannies that bring their babies take a pay cut in recognition that it's become akin to a nanny share. Generally it's nowhere near the saving of a real nanny share - I paid my nanny about 80-85 per cent of the going rate (this was when she originally started, and had one kid, the mat leave was with her second). Also if you're prepared to let her bring the baby to work she may well return a lot sooner. anyway I seem to have blethered on rather a lot but I hope it's helpful

what a great reply hat! That is really helpful and you're right, now that I know you are fully reimbursed it is just a case of finding a replacement. Our situation is a little more unusual as in she only works 3 days a week term time only so it is a case of finding someone who would be willing to work those days. Now I know how to sort out the financial side, I am not even going to worry about it at all anymore until the time comes when she tells me she is pregnant! I would definitely want her to come back with baby if that is what she wants to do but I don't think she would come back - she is 40, her hubby earns enough and I am sure she would just want to spend time with her baby but, that is the pesimistic in me....for all I know she will be back dead early with baby in tow....how marvelous would that be!!!

You're right Dannie, it does mess you up somewhat...not that I'm there yet!!! But, I can envisage it being a problem especially if they do not give you specifics on when they wish to return, or not! I think the safest bet would be to find someone to stand in for the minimum maternity period (which is about 6 months isn't it?) and then extend their temporary contract if she takes off any longer period (if she is entitled to it)? What a pavlova!

This 100% refund is great for the statutory maternity pay and nanny tax sorted it out for us.

The problem comes if she is sick while pg because of pregnancy related reasons - you have to pay full pay not statutory sick pay and of course get childcare at the same time. Sorry to put a damper on all this but we had a real issue about this with nanny number 1 and it was all just really expensive and inconvenient. Once she was on proper maternity leave her health recovered enough for a holiday in the carribean. that didn't help , though i was pleased her baby was healthy in the end.