Help with employing my Nanny

[Snailandthewhale]

Hello,

I've found a nanny through an agency, she's great and will be starting with us next month.

I didn't realise the agency wouldn't get involved with payments and we're to set ourselves up as her employer. We're going to use nannypaye to do this for us.

I just have a few questions I'm wondering if anyone can help with...

Employers liability insurance, we were told by the nanny agency this should be covered with our home insurance but it's not, when I called to check they've actually said they'll be cancelling our insurance as they can't cover a nanny.
For anyone who has this included with home insurance, who do you use?

Tax free childcare - we have twins, I've created an account in the portal. Do I need to pay half nanny's wages from child A's account and half from child B?

Lastly, for expenses we'd like to give the nanny a card similar to monzo (pre paid) is it possible for me to set up an account like this,that she can use but i can access? Anyone got anything similar?

Thanks

I can’t answer the first two but to the third, my employers have used Pockit card for me and topped it up as required, it’s very handy

@HanarCantWearSweaters thanks so much, I'll look into that!

@HanarCantWearSweaters sorry - can I ask, is the card in your name?

My employer put the card in her name, my nanny friend’s employer had it in the nanny’s which did work better as she could then access the app and track the amount left on it easier. So both options do work and up to you. If it’s in your name she’ll just need to check it at ATMs etc

@HanarCantWearSweaters that's a great help thank so much. I do have a Monzo account that I don't use so may just give her that.
Out of interest, how much would you think is reasonable for expenses? We have 2 1 year olds, no clubs or paid excursions yet given the lockdown. She'll be with us 3 days a week.

It’s so variable depending on what you’d be getting her to do. I would pick up extra bits for dinner, or milk, hairdressers, presents for a birthday party, or take some dry cleaning in etc, and I used it for public transport and the odd taxi. Maybe a stop at a cafe in the way to the park with a coffee for me and babyccinos for the little ones.
As she’ll only be here 3 days a week and there’s very little places open to spend money at, you’ll likely find you don’t need to top it up often. Rather than give her a set amount, I would put £50/£100 on and see how long that takes to whittle down. If you have access to the Monzo app you’ll be able to see whether it’s being used at a reasonable rate, and when you’re all settled in with her and you have some good trust established you can top it up with several hundred at once. My employer would do 300 or so at a time, it only takes two pairs of kids’ shoes or filling the car up with petrol for a third of that to be gone!

@HanarCantWearSweaters that's great advice, thank you.
It'll mostly be fresh bits of food and snacks until places open.

I'll do what you said and put £100 on to start with and see how she gets on.

Tax free childcare - we have twins, I've created an account in the portal. Do I need to pay half nanny's wages from child A's account and half from child B?

I would do so because every quarter you have a maximum topup per child of £500. So if you paid all money in and out of Child A's account you would probably hit that max topup limit.

What you could do is in Month1 you do all via ChildA, then Month2 all via ChildB, then Month3 do a combination of both... that may work. You want to maximise the topup you get.

Also keep in mind that you can pay Employers NI and the Income Tax and National Insurance you have deducted from your nanny's gross pay to HMRC via the Tax Free Childcare account. So put as much of the money through the TFC system as you possibly can.

If your nanny is not already on the TFC system it can take a while for them to register, depending on which country you live. So have your nanny start that process now if possible.

when I called to check they've actually said they'll be cancelling our insurance as they can't cover a nanny.
That's a new one, I wonder why that insurer is not happy to provide insurance if you have a nanny coming in to your home. I know that some providers won't add Employers liability cover but did not know that they would cancel the policy completely.

With luck some parents who employ a nanny read this and can help you source an insurer. I know you can get the Employers liability cover as a separate policy, such as from Mark Bates Ltd but it would be lower cost I expect if it is included in your home contents policy or as an additional add-on to that.

@nannynick thanks for all of your advice. Great to know we can pay HMRC through the tax free account!

The agency we found the nanny through are setting her up on the tax free system, they said it'd take around 10 days so I'm hoping it's all in place for her starting.

Yes strange one on the home insurance. I was surprised too, I thought nanny's and home help would be a common scenario.

And yes, we wanted to do both home and employers insurance together as it'll be cheaper. This is the only thing left to tick off now!

Are you in Scotland? If so that explains why the agency are involved with the TFC setup.

@nannynick yes 😁