What should my dad be paying his cleaner?

[Beekman]

My retired dad has a cleaner that comes in for a few hours a week. She is an old colleague and we have known her as a family for years so no problems with trust ete but I think because of their friendship, she is not charging him enough. He is open to paying more but neither of us know where to start on that.

How much should he be paying per hour? He lives in a nice suburb of a Northern town where to cost of living is low, if that makes any difference.

I’d probably say in the £18-20 ballpark. Lots of people will think that’s high but I used to clean for a living and had to charge that to cover all
my costs and come out with min wage.

How many rooms does she clean? What does she need to do? How long is a
piece of string?

I used to get £90 for a 2 bed 2 bath holiday let. I could smash 3 of those out a day on changeover day. But they were clutter free snd not lived in.

£15-18 depending on who supplies the cleaning gear
is she insured and registered as self employed

Thanks, I think £20 an hour is fine and I’m sure my dad will too.

Afar as I know, she cleans the kitchen and bathroom every week, vacuums the living room, hallway and dining room and does some ironing on top. She doesn’t do the bedrooms at all. My dad is very tidy and keeps the house clean on a daily basis so it’s never a mess when she comes in but what she does takes a physical load off my dad.

I live in the north east and £20 is the going rate now and tbh I've just recently got one earlier this year and for me the physical load being relieved was the highest help intact I didn't realise how much of a difference it would make to my health personally so would pay more if prices go up next year

my mum pays £15 an hour and supplies all the cleaning materials, but I think we may increase that next year some time.

How many hours does she spend each week? Your DF is clean and tidy, his kitchen and bathroom can’t be so dirty that it takes a few hours!
Does your DF claim Attendance Allowance? If he needs a cleaner he may well be eligible.

£15-£20 in the north east

Yeah £20 sounds reasonable. It's good you don't want her to be taken advantage of. Even if it is unintentional.

I pay £15 in the SW, all materials provided. I clean behind us routinely and I have 2 hours on top from my cleaner as a backup. I'd expect miracles for £20 per hour.

We pay £15 in a grotty part of London, will probably put it up in the NY.

We pay £25 an hour but everyone else we know with a cleaner pays between £20 and £22.50 an hour.

I'm sure life is different in other regions, but here there's not much work locally that anyone without qualifications can get that pays more than NMW. Cleaning is trust based, hence the premium.

Is she purely a cleaner or does she provide companionship as well? My mum had a cleaner 3 hours a week who basically cleaned for an hour and helped mum with 'life admin' and other things but actually was mostly company.

I agree £20 is reasonable.

South west here. Old cleaner was £15 p/h and new cleaner £18 p/h. I know the agencies round here are £20-£25 p/h though.

South east and my DF pays £19 an hour

20 quid in SE London

I expect cleaning...

cleaners have to travel between jobs, so it's going to be more than mimimum to account for that.

Plus the fact some clients don't pay when they are away on holiday (although for a standard 4 weeks off, they should)

£14/hour here, hertfordshire

Just to update: he pays her £20 an hour now and she does 2 hours a week. Yes, the house of pretty tidy anyway but she does all the jobs he find physically taxing. He could do them but if he had to but everyone is happy with the arrangement. They do chat when she is there as they are old pals but no life admin or anything like that, just cleaning and ironing.

No attendance allowance, what would be a reason he could claim that?

Disabilities, vision, hearing, risk of falls, memory problems. Read about it on age UK site. It's not taxable and not means tested.

Thanks. He doesn’t suffer from anything like that, thankfully.