Help with live out au pair contract

[JoshandJamie]

Well after much searching I found a lovely American girl who only lives 15 minutes away from me. She wants to do some part time childcare work as she moved here with her husband and doesn't have much to do.

Perfect for me as I only want someone 4 afternoons a week and don't want them living in.

I'm paying her the maximum limit you can weekly before having to register for tax - which probably doesn't sound like much for a live out role but she's not doing this for the money (her words, not mine).

I have pulled a contract off an aupair website and am not sure what to do about holidays. Given she's working part time and live out, do I still have to give her paid holidays? And if so, how much?

Also, if we go on holiday, do I still have to pay her?

It's all a bit weird because she's not really an au pair in the strictest sense of the word and she's not really a nanny. She's sort of a mother's help but won't be doing any cleaning or cooking. So I don't know what my resonsibilities are.

Hello,
In the strictest sense of the word she is definetely NOT an aupair as she must meet a strict criteria. So she is an employee but whether you call her a nanny or home helper or whatever is up to you. Does she therefore have a working visa?

Please be aware that although tax and NIC is not payable on the first £100 earned each week, you will have to record all earnings over the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) £84 per week for 2007.

This is the minimum level of earnings that an employee needs to qualify for benefits, such as Retirement Pension and Jobseekers Allowance. If an employee?s earnings reach or exceed this level, but do not exceed the Earnings Threshold of £100 per week for 2007, they will not pay NICs but will be treated as having paid them when claiming benefit. For this reason, you must keep details of an employee?s earnings at or above the LEL on a form P11 or equivalent record and report them at the end of the year on a form P14.

So I guess you will have to pay her less than £84 per week to avoid any HMRC paperwork.

Doesn't sound as though she's an au pair really. My immediate thought was have you checked her visa, is she allowed to work in this country? See here about au pair visas, not available to Americans, and

here about domestic workers.

Second thought, it doesn't matter what someone's job title is, your responsibilities as an employer are the same.

Businesslink has some fairly straightforward stuff about employing people, your basic responsibilities, might be useful.

Ugh. This is so blinkin complicated!!!!!!
Thanks - will look further at this

I agree that you need to work out what right to work is. If you hire someone illegally, I imagine the IR will be mighty unhappy with you.

Is her husband English (in which case she could get a work permit very easily). If he is American and she came over on his visa, it might be a whole nother story.