Through social media many more young people are aware that their employers must declare their earnings to HMRC, so whilst there are bound to be some people still accepting cash-in-hand, many nannies will be being paid correctly.
It is hard to know though as there is:
No central register of childcare workers.
No central register of parents who have someone working in their home.
The total number of people working as a nanny in the UK is unknown. There is a figure of 100,000 that sometimes comes up but I can't find where that ever came from - maybe a census many years ago.
There is a known number of those on the Ofsted childcare register but some of those will be over8's childminders.
Each nanny payroll company knows how many nannies are working but they don't share that figure with anyone. Some payroll companies are big others are tiny.
HMRC don't know how many nannies there are. If parents are not running payroll correctly then HMRC won't know.
There are nannies who work so part time that they earn under the amount where their pay needs to be declared.
So whilst cash-in-hand does still happen I feel it probably happens less than it used to as more people are aware that taxes have to be paid. Nannies will stand up for their rights more, they talk to each other via Facebook groups, Whats App, so I feel they are more aware of what rights they should have at work. Perhaps I'm wrong. An isolated nanny may well not know that they should have tax deducted from their pay. How many are isolated now... given the internet, social media and smartphones.
I hope the days of cash-in-hand are numbered, though I doubt it will ever disappear completely.
Does anyone know a nanny being paid £300-500 per week cash-in-hand, is that really still happening?