Cleaner possibly getting council flat?

[flossiesnooks]

What should I think about this? Our cleaner has been working here for several years, cash in hand. As she has had free accommodation with an elderly lady who needed some care, she has managed to save a lot of money and now owns two properties in Poland. The elderly lady has died and soon she will need to find her own accommodation (in London). She told me that she is planning to tell the council she is homeless so she can get council accommodation. Are you technically homeless if you own properties abroad? Is this fair given the pressure on council housing in London?

It would disqualify her and would also be fraud if she signs the forms saying she has no home yet is a home owner in this country or elsewhere.

This is never real. Cleaners, social housing, cash in hand and immigrants. Are you quite sure she didn't tell you this while you were parking on the way to a wedding OP?

We pay our polish cleaners in cash. She definitely declares it and would be foolish not to as she needs to show a pattern of employment/earning if she needed to access benefits and I think to gain residency (not sure how this works but she did ask if I would let her pass on my contact details to HMRC in case they needed me to confirm she was doing what she said she was doing).

Another one not getting the snotty comments about paying cleaners in cash. That's how the vast majority of cleaners are paid. They are self employed generally and not employees. How else do you pay them? I assume all that are snotty never pay their window cleaner, beautician etc in cash?

It's not illegal to pay someone in cash for their services

She can certainly apply to go on the council house waiting list but, as others have pointed out, as a single person without disabilities and no dependents, she'll be permanently near the end of a very long queue. She'll only be entitled to a studio flat and there are very few of them, again priority will rightfully be given to single adults with some form of disability/vulnerability.

As well the councils & boroughs are tightening up the "local connection" rule all the time, i.e. the length of time you have lived in the area. I'm sure it was 5 years last I heard so she may well fail that.

What is far likelier to happen is she'll be referred to the access to private rentals scheme where the council pays the deposit (and obviously keeps it at the end of the tenancy) as this is often the biggest hurdle to getting a private rental. Typically the rent is assessed as fair and landlords will accept housing benefit (though again my knowledge may be out of date here).

And how do the MN cash-in-hand police want us to check? 'Sorry potential cleaner, I need to see your accounts first'?
I can't help thinking I would be flamed on here if I did that.

When she applies she will be asked if she owns any property anywhere. The two properties in Poland, if declared, will be assumed to be providing her with an income (even if they are not rented out) and that theoretical income will affect her entitlements.

There was a thread last year from a MNer who had inherited an olive grove in Greece - which was completely unsaleable and unlettable because no one is interested in olive groves in Greece so its realisable value is zero and it could only produce an income if the owner moved to Greece to farm it herself - but the benefits system has an automatic assumption that property you don't live in = income and assessed the olive grove as being worth £xx thousand per year making the owner ineligible for benefits.

The same system will also affect this person's claim unless they lie (and as pp have said, who wants a dishonest cleaner?)

If she was genuinely going to get a council flat then I could see why you could be about it. But the best she will be offered will be help to get a deposit for a private rental. Single adults without children or additional needs don't get council flats in prime locations. Maybe in the north east they might but if there is a surfeit of council flats then who cares. This woman won't be jumping the queue above anyone, don't worry.

usually left out for the cleaner on the day. So now I'm wondering how the moral police on this thread pay their cleaners if not with filthy filthy cash.

When I could afford them mine were payed by standing order, or rather the company that employed them did.

I pay my cleaner with cash. I mind my own business about her housing arrangements.

The op is clearly a goady fucker.

I thought "cash in hand" meant not paying VAT when it was due? Not the same as settling an invoice in cash, although we would usually do BACS these days.

When we had a cleaner, we paid via credit card or standing order to the company that employed them.

You need to turn over £83k pa before you need to register for VAT (assuming a domestic U.K. business). Not many cleaners make that!

The op is clearly a goady fucker

Indeed!

Her housing arrangements aren't any of your business.

cash in hand.

Dont try to claim the moral high ground. Its this kind of hand to mouth lifestyle that drives people to make these kinds of claims.

Thanks Moving I did think that it was going to be unlikely that a cleaner would make that.

So how does it work if she was employed as a live-in carer, and then earning additional income through cleaning? Would it be via personal income tax limits and a tax return to HMRC? Just trying to increase my knowledge!

So how does it work if she was employed as a live-in carer, and then earning additional income through cleaning? Would it be via personal income tax limits and a tax return to HMRC? Just trying to increase my knowledge!

Yes, you just fill in a tax return and pay any tax you owe.

Thanks Purple - so basically the cash in hand point is irrelevant, as it is up to the cleaner to sort out tax requirements.

I would like to withdraw my judgemental comment .

Hello journalist.

Cash in hand

I hope you are all set for introducing the workplace pension this year.

Maybe start doing your research on that and minding your own business?

Highly unlikely that she will be given a council flat,if she has no dependents,or she is classed as 'vulnerable',e.g. disabled or has severe health problems that being homeless could make worse.

Do they give them to people who work? I thought you had to be a laysbout

Almost all cleaners are paid cash in hand, even many of those working for larger companies. Maybe she does declare it? If you want to know, ask her for invoices. It may give you an idea of whether she's declaring. My cleaner offered an invoice when she first started, said she'd be making something up for hmrc anyway.
If what's happening really bugs you, just get a new cleaner, I wouldn't trust a liar anyway.