Self-employed Nanny - Is this legal?

[bluebear]

Looking for some advice from experienced nanny employers.
I interviewed a 'nanny' last night (the '' are because she has no childcare qualifications, but she has a lot of experience and was highly recommended by a neighbour).
I had been told her rate was £8 per hour which is standard net pay for this area for qualified nannies.
On discussing this at interview she has said that she is 'self-employed' and therefore the £8 is effectively her gross pay, as she will be paying her own NI/tax out of it.
From my point of view it sounds good, as it makes her much much cheaper than I thought - but I was wondering if it was legal - I know that as an employer I would be expecting to pay employers NI as well as employees so should I still budget for that?
She is going to be employed by more than one family, so she fits the 'sole trader' inland rev. descripton...I'm just a bit concerned.

BTW she says she wants to be responsbile for her own NI/tax as her previous employers didn't pay hers so now she cannot claim Jobseeker's allowance etc. when her contract terminates - I felt really sorry for her.

For the tax year just gone, I was employed and self employed. On the tax return, there is a section for employment earnings, and I sent them copies of my p60s/p45. This seems the easiest way, then they can refund/ask for more tax.

It's a minefield!!

I have nothing helpful to add to this but just wanted that a nanny with lots of experience but no qualifications shouldn't be demoted to being a "nanny"... really winds me up when people think that qualifications are the be all and end all

... HOWEVER, I am not saying that qualifications aren't important (they clearly are as I'm currently completing an NVQ3 alongside my full time job lol) but I hate that some people might think I'm some nanny wannabe because all I have is a measely 8 years of experience

that is all. sorry for the rant

BotheredNanny - Calm down dear - the first post on this thread is 3 years old! No one is calling you a nanny wannabe.

The quote about the interviewee not having qualifications was I felt, relevant, as the pay quoted (back then) was the amount which would have been due for an experienced NNEB/NVQ3 or equivalent rather than the 2 years of shared care au pair experience and 1 year of cash-in-hand sole charge nannying with no first aid cert etc that this candidate had. And the '' were partlyl because I had doubts about how she could be a professional nanny when she had the idea that she could be self-employed.
She didn't get the job by the way, partly due to her insistence on being self-employed but mainly on her lack of interaction with kids at interview.

I do seem to be good at annoying nannys on mumsnet - good thing I only have 2 weeks as a nanny employer to go I guess

Back to 2008 please.

blame cherbear - she seems to like dragging up old posts

still dont understand,how a nanny can be se if they work regular hours

fair enough but to be fair, you did state she had "lots of experience" which is obviously not 2 years au pairing+1 years sole charge lol.
Obviously you touched a raw nerve+I did apologise for my rant!
Who is this CHERBEAR anywhoo+why is she dragging up posts+making me look silly, eh, eh?

Take a deep breath bothered nanny...

I assure everyone I am a temple of calm now, honest guv'nor

Thank goodness for that! Glad you are calmer. As to the experience thing - I was misled by my neighbour who was singing this person's praises - it turned out that the neighbour was thinking that she could 'borrow' the nanny for about 10 hours a week whilst I paid nanny for 8-6 - meaning that neighbour would have afterschool care on the cheap without the worry of paying nanny a living wage, taxes, NI etc. (It was neighbour's friend who was the former employer who said that they had paid the tax/NI but actually hadn't!)