Paying a teenager/student to childmind

[Darksideofthemoon88]

Please be gentle - this is my first, I have no experience of children, and I'm thinking WAY ahead (Baby Darkside isn't even four weeks old!). When I go back to work, I was thinking of paying a teenager (not just any old one!) to look after Baby Darkside or, failing that, advertising with the uni for a teaching/nursing/midwifery student. Can someone just tell me: is this still legal/'allowed' or do they have to be registered somewhere? Is there anything else I need to know? Thanks

You can employ anyone as a nanny in your own home, but you are an employer and subject to the same employment laws as anyone else. Why would you choose a teenager though?

Yes I was wondering the same. Surely the students will be busy at uni and only have very few hours to spare. They are usually used for babysitting ad hoc hours.

An experienced (or even not!) nanny who actually does nannying as a career would be better or a childminder or nursery are other options.

Student in Holidays
Student in Term Time

It is allowed, see those links for the tax arrangements. If it was only for a few hours a week then the student may not earn enough to need tax deducted.

What sort of hours would you need someone to care for BabyDarkside? A student could work for care in early evening but may not work so well for daytime, as the student will need to attend lectures, may not get up that early.

Just because I know one who may be interested and would be good, and I figured she'd be cheaper than an adult professional. Students: you may well be right, but my partner and I work funny hours so may not clash with uni stuff, and I figured that a lot of students need to work and that teaching/midwifery/nursing ones might consider it relevant experience and be grateful of a reference. I could be wrong though. How would I find out about employing someone and what I have to do?

Have a look at the links I posted, also look at the Employers section of the HMRC website.

You may also find that you get enough information from nanny payroll company websites, as they often try to explain how having an employee works.

If you need to register as an employer or not depends on various factors, so until you know who will do it, what their financial status is which may be done via them giving you a P45 from their last job, what you will be paying per week/month then you will not know for sure.

Once registered as an employer you use the HMRC online system or you use a payroll service, or software to work out what to pay and what taxes to deduct. You then pay the taxes to HMRC every 3 months.

www.mranchovy.com/calc is useful to find out if you will pay any employers national insurance. Enter in the gross weekly salary and the working hours per week.

We often have info on here about being an employer. Have a look through the most recent view pages of messages looking for things to do with employing a nanny/mothers help/au-pair.

A student may be cheaper but it won't be that much cheaper as you rightly say they are looking for income to fund their studies/social life.

If you can find several different people who would do it, then it may be like babysitters (they do it self employed). Anything happening every week though is most likely to be employment.

How about talking to the uni careers department, they may be able to advise about what sort of work their students are often wanting.

Ask the person you think is interested what pay they would be wanting and what times they would be able to do.

Thanks Cindy