Au pairs staying longer than 2 years? Can they?

[Mo2]

Our lovely au pair has been with us 2 years past Easter.
We are all very happy with her continuing to stay with us, and she is continuing to study English.

Because she is from Slovakia - one of the 'new' EU countries we have assumed that there is no issue with her staying on (since people from these countries can now freely enter the country). However one of my friends said she thought she'd read something about au pairs having to become 'employed' after the 2 year time period?

Anyone know anything about this?

So why not just employ her? Have you considered posing this question to the nice folks at nannytax.co.uk?

Agree with Uwila - employ her!

I though anyone from an EU country can stay here as long as they like?

I would say that there is a moral obligation to formalise the arrangement if she stays longer than 2 years, or does anything outside of the tradition au pair definition.

There is a worker's registration scheme that accession country citizens are supposed to be in in their first year in the UK - presumably she has not yet registered. There is also the question of National Insurance for her.

Thanks everyone - yes - this is the confusion really:

• she is currently not 'technically' employed, as she was on an au pair/ student visa
• so, she hasn't registered under the Workers Registration Scheme, because in our/ her mind she isn't 'employed'

However she DOES have a National Insurance number because at one point she thught she would like to get a part time job, so would obviously need one for that (but she hasn't actually got a job yet).

If I'm honest, if we HAD to formally employ her, and then go through all the process/ tax associated with that, then I'm not sure we would want to bother - it wouldn't make financial sense for us. And what would we employ her as - she is not a Nanny - more just a Cleaner/ Babysitter, but how would we account for the 'benefits in kind' of room, heating, food, etc?
Give that choice we could simply get another au pair (although we probably wouldn't because as our kids get older we actually need her less than we did two years ago?)

Can't you employ her part time as a mother's help or "housekeeper" on a part time basis (ie give her board and lodging and pay her a fair wage for the hours worked)? She could then study or get another part time job for the rest of the time. I don't see how you could NOT pay her tax and NI, though, don't see any way round this one otherwise you would be employing her illegally.

If she is young enough, could you just carry on employing her as an au pair? (I think the age limit is 25 or 27 - something around that age.)

If she is only part time and you are deduction the value of room and board, and then paying here a fair wage, I expect we are talking less than £100/week. And if that is true taxes are virtually nil. Check out the tax calculator on nannytax.co.uk. Just make sure you are the employer that gets the lower tax level!

Oh, and it is the employee's responsibility to register with the home office and pay the £50, not yours.