Nannies and maternity leave

[loueyt]

We are just investigating going down the Nanny route but I have a query about maternity rights. As the employer would we be eligible for paying all maternity leave for the period the nanny was off or not ?

Wondered is anyone had any experience

Thanks

You pay but can reclaim the cost of statutory maternity pay from HM Revenue and Customs, as a small employer. They paid pretty quickly when I had a nanny on maternity leave. Most nannies are entitled only to statutory maternity pay.

business link has some info about responsibilities for maternity pay and claiming it back etc

Could always opt for a male nanny... then maternity leave isn't an issue (though SPP may apply).

HMRC have a SMP calculator, but alas it needs lots of PAYE details to get a good result. Good news though is that there is a calculator, should you need it when your employee is pregnant.

SMP Recovery - this may be helpful. All employers can recover 92% of SMP, some employers can recover 100% - I expect you would qualify for SER, as threshold is £45,000 - and you won't be paying that in NICs for a nanny!

Thanks for all your help. Very scary all this being an employer but hopefully will sort it all out.

I'm going to be slaughtered for pointing this out, but you could write a fixed term contract fir say 12 months. If she turns up preggie, you don't have to renew the contract.

Or you can hire someone who is here on a working holiday visa and is therefore restricted to 12 months of work anyway.

Or you can hire a boy, as Nick points out.

To me,the risk is not so much the SMP for which I would be reimursed, but more so all the hassle and expense that comes with hiring a temp to cover the time off. A temp nanny is more expensive and you have to let her go with one month's notice when the permanent nanny says she is returning.

Eleusis - she shows up pregnant on her first day and your 12 month contract helps you how?

Because I don't have to hire another 12 months of temp cover at inflated prices.

BTW, I personally go with the holiday maker visa option. This has it's drawbacks because sometimes you get one you don't want to lose but have to say goodbye anyway.

naughty nanny nick what about Paternity leave? Hmmmmmmmm.

Paternity leave is a wee bit shorter than maternity leave. And it doesn't require trips to the midwife, osteopath, breastfeeding clinic, etc.

Failing to renew a fixed term contract because your employee is pregnant is sex discrimination.

Choosing not to renew for other reasons is not. It is fixed term. It has expired. I decided I wanted someone who speaks Latin. Redundancy rules don't apply.

But, as I said earlier, it's not the being pregnant or paying for maternity leave that I would have a problem with. I could scrape by and accommodate those. Another six months of temp cover at inflated prices is where I couldn't go on.

Six months? What am I saying? It's 12 months. Silly me.