Au Pair

[Lynsey1975]

I have just gone back to work and my wages dont cover the nursery fees for my 9 month and 2 year old.

Was thinking about getting an au pair but dont know where to start. Can anyone recommend an agency.
Thanks!

An au pair by definition is a young, generally inexperienced person who can work maximum of 25 hours per week. They do not have the experience to look after either babies or toddlers sole charge. I hope you are not thinking of substituting nursery with the aupair. You might be able to consider reducing the nursery hours and using the aupair to provide a few hours per day of sole charge care for your children but I think even that is stretching their abilities.

A nanny share may work out cheaper than a nursery place for both children.

Don't have an au pair for anyone under school age...they are not experienced or qualified enough

I get my aupairs from the EU. There is no restriction on working hours to just 25. I agree them in advance.

It will be quite a tall order for an aupair to look after a baby and a toddler. If you are paying nursery fees for two, how about a live-in nanny instead?

I think the whole issue of au pairs gets very muddy every time there is a discussion on MN. Of course EU citizens can work more hours and (hopefully) get paid more than the usual au pair stipend. However, you are then into the realms of paying NI/tax, being an employer etc and if you are going to pay market rates, then you might as well get a nanny with some experience. However, a genuine au pair type person doesn't have much experience with children and it doesn't matter how much you are prepared to pay them, they still don't have the experience to manage a toddler and baby.

If you are struggling with childcare costs, is there any possibility of using a childminder, a nanny share or having a live-in nanny? Or if you have a partner, perhaps you could both work a four-day week and then only have to pay for three days of nursery? Do you have any family who might be able to look after your children for one day a week? I think investigating options other than an au pair would be a better first step.

You're in the realms of being an employer anyway, just witout paying tax/NI. Au pairs are classed as workers and for people with just 1 employee it makes next to no difference when it comes to employment rights - they get a contract, paid holiday and protection from unfair treatment the same way anyone else does. They are live in, so exempt from min wage, and earn under the threshold for tax and NI.

It's up to you who you leave your children with but an au pair who doesn't speak brilliant English could harm your children's lingustic development, unless the idea is they speak their native language. They will have very little experience but more importantly won't see things the same way you do which for extended sole charge, especially of young children, could cause many problems. I would venture that if you get someone inexperienced you get someone who us EMT and from a broadly similar culture. Perhaps a mothers help looking for a nanny job or a newly qualified nanny? They would cost in the region of £250-300 a week all told. I don't know what your nursery fees are.

You then have the issue if pay with your original proposal. An underpaid au pair will resent it and jump ship to someone offering max pay for fewer hours. If you pay them a fair wage you need to take tax/NI into account as I would hope FT sole charge would be paid more than £97 a week!

Finally the only people with restrictions are au pairs from A2 countries so if you did decide to do this you could not employ a Romanian or Bulgarian coming from their country as an au pair to do extended hours. An EU citizen (excluding A2 nationals) or someone on a tier 5 visa can work unlimited hours.

Perhaps if you can give us a location and what hours you need we can do some maths on the options for you?

If an aupair stays for less than a year, which is not unusual, they do not have rights against unfair dismissal. Not that I am encouraging anyone to unfairly dismiss their aupair...

I get aupairs from Western Europe with good English. I check that via a phone interview and through their emails.

Lynsey, I do think long hours fulltime charge for children as young as yours should not be with an aupair. You would be looking at a nanny or a combination of quite substantial nursery hours/aupair. What about a childminder?

Unfair treatment isn't the same as unfair dismissal. Although expecting your au pair to leave with no notice and no pay in lieu could be seen as being unfair, even if not legally construed as unfair dismissal. But that's slightly beside the point.

Giving reasonable notice or pay in lieu is sensible.

Hiring an aupair under UK employments laws is not legally onerous if her pay falls below the income tax/NI threshold. It is nothing like hiring a nanny in terms of legalities or paperwork.

It's exactly the same in terms of legalities! The difference only comes when you pay over the tax threshold, which is when the paperwork really hits. But you could pay your au pair over the tax threshold and you'd have exactly the same amount of additional bother as you would having a nanny.

An aupair is nowhere near the legal bother of having a nanny.

In terms of legalities both a nanny and an au pair should have a contract of employment.

Depending on the level of pay it is possible not to have to register as an employer with HMRC if you are employing an au pair.

Why? What exactly is different once you take the tax/NI out of the equation?

Because really as far as I can see the only difference is paying tax and NI. It used to be that au pairs were exempt and we've had this debate so many times, but they removed the exception and didn't replace it so by default, until the government do something about it, they're exactly the same as any other kind of live-in domestic worker with the exceptions from legislation such as NMW, the working time limits etc. They don't fit any of the other exemptions from being an employee. As you don't operate PAYE they don't have the right to SSP, SMP/maternity leave etc so that removes a lot of hassle but it doesn't remove the need for a contract.

It's not complicated at all - I just think that the burden of employing someone comes when you hit the threshold and not just because you magically call them a nanny.

"An aupair is nowhere near the legal bother of having a nanny", I think others have answered that question already but from a childcare point of view, it's like comparing apples and oranges. You need either an aupair OR a nanny, they are very different in terms of experience and ability to look after children. Figuring out whether one is more difficult to employ from a paperwork point of view should not be an issue, rather you have to decide what kind of childcare you need, whether you can afford it or not and then deal with the paperwork.