Recommendation for London cleaning agency paying London Living Wage

[CocoaBeanPlease]

I'm looking for a new cleaner and would like to use an agency that pays the London Living Wage. I've found a few by googling, but was wondering if anyone had first hand experience of one they would recommend?

I don't begrudge the cost at all, but would like to get a decent service for it - which just means a cleaner that turns up reliably, does an ok job and with enough English to explain very basic things to. We've had a few cleaners over the years, some great (who left because of issues with the agency, not us!) but most really not very good.

Also, I would like the payments to go through the agency. We have used some in the past where we paid the cleaner directly (in addition to the agency) and I'm not sure what our legal position was regarding tax in those cases.

Any idea of the hourly cost would also be appreciated - it's hard to get that info without putting in a full application request.

We're in NW London if that makes a difference.

Many thanks!

I'm London and pay my cleaner £9 an hour direct to her. Regarding tax purposes I assume as a self employed person it's up to her to declare and pay tax on this not me although I may be wrong and I'll have a rude surprise from HMRC

I guess the question came up when I looked into nannies and there it was clear that we would be liable for their taxes. Not sure how a cleaner differs - possibly because they have multiple clients? I just wanted to be sure that it is indeed legal and not just something everyone does (we talked to several nannies who said previous employers had paid them cash without declaring it, although in that case it is explicitly against the law).

www.justhelpers.com (or .co.uk)

Just checked. It's www.justhelpers.co.uk

Thanks, it's one of the ones I had seen, so I'll try contacting them.

The tax liability is to do with the number of hours they work for you. When I had a part time nanny I wasn't responsible for her taxes as she worked fewer than 11 hours a week for me. If she had worked more hours than than for me, I'd have had to do the taxes. The exact hours may have changed now so work checking.

With cleaners I prefer to pay directly as then I can pay more because there is no agency cut to worry about. I also think that encourages the good ones to stick around for longer because it's better than what they could get elsewhere. I pay £12 per hour for the cleaner I use at the moment but am in London and he is particularly fantastic. If you use an app-type service like Handy you end up paying more than £12 per hour but the cleaners only get £8 per hour, no sick pay, and quite punitive conditions if they are late or have to cancel (e.g. for sickness). I was horrified when I found out.

Thanks a lot for the info on tax liability, that makes a lot of sense! If tax is not an issue, I agree that I'd rather pay direct for the reasons you mention. I know a lot of agencies treat their cleaners quite badly, so if I had to go with one, I was hoping that one paying the LLW would mean better conditions for them overall.