Cleaner living in a tent

[newbie202020]

I'm pretty sure our cleaner is living in a tent and I feel really uncomfortable about it and I'm not completely sure why.

She was recommended through a friend and has been cleaning for us for about a year with no problems, cleans well, is reliable etc. We've also recommended her to neighbours who she also now cleans for and they too are happy with her services.

She isn't from the UK, and her English is a little limited but have gathered that her husband was seriously injured a few months ago at work and hasn't been able to work since. She has also mentioned moving house. We assume her husband was in some kind of cash in hand job so unlikely to be receiving workplace sick pay.

Our cleaner was unable to work this week due to something medical and sent us a photo to show this (we definitely didn't expect to/want to see a photo) and she was clearly in a tent, sitting on what appears to be some kind of office chair.

We have no reason not to trust her, although she doesn't have a key and we are usually home for the duration of her working hours, but I really feel for her if she is living in a tent as she cannot afford accommodation. We are in London and rents are very high. As her English is limited I can't raise this with her sensitively and anyway, I don't think it's really my place to. We pay her the going rate around here of £17 p/h.

I'm interested in hearing the views of others on this.

Thanks all

@theworldie
I would not be in a position where that situation would ever arise, because I, in accordance with my own conscience, would not be the owner of more than one property: my actual home.

My post is not ridiculous ‐it only appears so if you are so entrenched in the ideology which enables profiteering from basic human need that has prevailed in Britain for the last few decades, that you cannot conceive of a more equitable vision for housing in Britain.

There are no 'other people's children' of the future; they're all our children.

There are no "legal implications" of paying someone cash. It is up to the person receiving the cash to declare it to HMRC. Lots of us who are self employed receive cash or money through things like PayPal and declare every penny.

£17 an hour sounds plenty, it's well over minimum wage for a job which is unskilled and requires no experience. As for the tent and whether she's here illegally or not - what exactly is the OP expected to do about that?

This is much more common than people realise.

A large number of homeless people aren’t the ones you see on the side of the street or addicted to drugs etc, they are people who work or looking for work and live in tents or cars and just can’t afford rent on a single income.

She sounds fortunate that she has a bank account associated with an address, as this is usually the biggest issue. No address, no bank account and therefore you can’t claim benefits or get a job. It really is a vicious cycle.

I would recommend her to family and friends to try and get her more hours.

Yes pretty sure, message and photo were sent first thing with a 'here I am unwell, I need to go to the Dr's so can't work today, sorry' message. It just like the inside of a tent we own

I'm not feeling threatened by her poverty, but I feel really sad that she's living like that - that anyone has to live that way, of course. Considering how many hours I'm aware she works through friends and neighbours, plus believe she has many more clients, if she is still unable to afford a roof over her head that's a concern. I know she has children in her home country so assume she is funding them, plus a husband who is still too injured to work

You really do live in a bubble of privilege. Most minimum wage or low wage jobs don't come with sick pay. That's why so many people have to to work when they are sick or not fully recovered.
I'm in a UK breast cancer group where the majority of those undergoing treatment are trying desperately to keep working because they cannot afford to be off sick

Living in a tent caring for a sick husband and cleaning your home and other homes she got her hands full and still smiles.
While you come on MN to moan about her.
Get your head out the clouds not all of us have an up market life.
your shit stinks no matter who you are.

Not quite sure where I was 'moaning' about her?!

Clean your own home and you wont have to come on MN to let everyone know how a hard working woman is living.
Says more about you than her.

Why do you think OP is moaning?

She seems to want advice on how to deal with an unusual situation.
There is not no need to get so defensive.

Why don't you stop the insults and engage some thinking skills? If OP were to clean her own house then the cleaner would have no income at all?

How kind and thoughtful 🙄

£17 is a lot. I’ve been looking for a cleaner to do some hours for me. I say “some” but actually I only mean one hour and I also expect five hours cleaning - its the least I deserve.

My last cleaner used to cook for us as well. It was OK, used too buy all the food and she didn’t have a Michelin Star like we would have liked. The final straw came when i discovered she’d not bought organic kale from Fortum and Masons when I found the Waitrose wrapper in the bin.

I wondered what I paid her ten pound an hour for…..

That's what no Recourse to Public Funds means. They can't get Statutory Sick Pay, they can't get ongoing medical treatment, physiotherapy or prescriptions, they can't access social housing or benefits when they are injured. Despite paying tax and acting perfectly legally, they don't get anything other than emergency medical care.

I really don’t know how to say this nicely (but I don’t mean it meanly) but if you want to know because you can help then ask her, if you want to know for any other reason then just be happy with the job she does and continue to give her work. Everyone deserves a chance.

dh was in China last year and everyone spoke to him like he was a god simply because of where he was born (Ireland). Literally everyone he spoke to thought we lived some form of higher existence and that we deserved it. He found some parts of Chinese life amazing, they were all about after work going for a game of basketball, fruit and healthy food was readily available to all, kids played all around, he felt a million times safer than in Dublin etc etc but then there’s obviously the control (did you know you have to stay in the same job after age 35 until you retire?) the fear, the hiding of things. When dh travels with work inevitably someone will ask how difficult it was for him to get into the country. The Real Answer, because he’s a privledged European he can go wherever the fuck he likes essentially without too much crap. Why do uk and Ireland get such a free pass (yes I know about visas but ukwim) where other countries have to fight to get to a place where they can earn a standard of living that can support them and their families?

Minimum wage is less than £12. An awful lot of people are paid around this figure. There's lot's of issues here, the salary isn't one of them.

£17 is not cheap, most cleaners i know are on £15 in London. They are on the same money as nannies who have to speak fluent English, have all the necessary checks and look after children .

Completely not what the op asked

Ffs

Is she cleaning or tidying up? Do you feel the amount you pay her is worth it and she saves you time?

its 20-25 where I am outside London, a gardener is 25

No address, no bank account and therefore you can’t claim benefits or get a job

This isn't true. You can claim benefits while homeless, they can pay you by giro cheque which you can cash at a post office. You use the local jobcentre as your postal address for the purposes of the claim and go there regularly to find out if you have any post (it's only benefits related post, they won't handle other post), unless they don't send out post now most of life is online. I agree getting an employer to pay you cash is going to be difficult, if you have no bank account. If someone already has a bank account and becomes homeless they can get the bank to put a security risk marker on their account so that no post is sent to "their" address.

she seems to live on coke and cigarettes.

Do you mean coca cola or cocaine?

Neither would surpise me, frankly.

Yeah could be. There are those that slip through net with housing crisis..you lose your home due to not being able to afford rent, but if your working you are sometimes expected to foot the b&b bill in emergency accommodation and don't qualify for council help in some areas, ironically emergency accomodation can be more expensive then the rent they couldn't pay in the first place 😅 hopefully they get somewhere soon.

Are you paying her sick pay?