Advice needed for English au pair/nanny

[Jazz00100]

Please bear with me as this is a long explanation. I am a 26 year old British female who has gone from a standard 40 hour working week in a day nursery to a live in nanny/ au pair type job.
Because I’m over 25 I was on national living wage in my other job. However in this new job my employers have provided me with accommodation which is a separate annex type thing and use of a car. This includes my bills inc food and my car insurance and tax paid for me but not my petrol. In return I get £400 a month ‘wages’
I work between 6-8 hours a day and my duties include
Childcare- school runs dinner homework etc.daily
Cooking for the entire family Mum and dad when thy come back from work.
Washing
Ironing
Hoovering
Cleaning whole house
And grocery shopping.

My wages go through paye so I have no idea how it’s calculated but I’m obviously not taxed.
I feel I do not cost them the extra £600+ a month I should be earning for them to feed me and pay for my bills.
I have been working for the family now for 6 months and I have still not signed a contract and I’m not overly clear on how much I should be doing and if it’s even legal the way I’m working.
One of them refers to me as an au pair (even though I’m English) and the other refers to me as a nanny. I’m thinking of going to citizens advice soon to seek some help on this matter.

No signed contact?! Any statement of terms?

No they just keep saying oh we really must finish your contract. It's more the money I'm not earning I'm worried about. Not sure if I'm being massively underpaid and overworked.

You're not an Au pair as you're not on a cultural exchange and living as part of the family.
You still are entitled to living wage, though there is an offset for accommodation of about £50 a week.

You ARE being massively over paid and underworked. Nanny/housekeepers do that amount of cleaning/cooking and not au pairs.

Get a new job and a nice reference from your current family and then decide if you would like to go down a legal route to claim unpaid wages.

underneath - do you mean it the other way round??

Gosh. It sounds like they are getting a very good deal. You are being paid £100 a week essentially. I think I would be very unhappy with that arrangement.

It does sound like they are taking advantage. I've had several live in jobs in the past where I've had separate accommodation provided and still been paid the normal going rate for a live in nanny. You need to get the contract sorted out with them and also payslips so you can see how your salary is broken down. You are entitled to them.
Thirdly, it sounds like a nanny housekeeper job to me with the amount of general cooking and cleaning involved, nannies usually only do "nursery duties" I.e. cleaning and laundry directly related to the children.
I would get in touch with some agencies and start looking for a new job, I suspect that you haven't got the contract and payslips because they know that they are not paying you properly and they're not very likely to change that.

You're not an au pair, not by any stretch of the imagination. HMRC would not accept that definition of your employment.

So you're a live in nanny. You are entitled to the national minimum wage minus a maximum of £47 a week for board and lodgings. Anything less than that is illegal.

So you can either raise this with your employer or find a new job. A quick call to ACAS to talk through the numbers might help.

You don't necessarily need a signed contract, working regularly onnthe same job over the same hours each week could be seen as an assumed contract. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Sorry yes I do mean underpaid!!! Sorry OP.

As an aupair you should only be doing work involving the children - e.g. cooking their meals or seeing to their clothes. You are a housekeeper and are being underpaid which I am guessing they know full well, hence their reluctance to give you a contract.

You are being taken advantage of you! You are not an au-pair on a temporary foreign exchange - you are a live-in nanny

Legally they have to pay you at least national minimum wage, do your paye and the maximum they can deduct for for accomodation is (as previously posted) £47.

What everyone else said. You need to be paid at least the minimum wage, and there is a maximum offset for accommodation and food which is surprisingly little. You are absolutely not an au pair, but an illegally underpaid nanny / housekeeper.