Questions about employing a housekeeper

[Nero]

We are currently looking to recruit a part-time housekeeper. I was planning on paying wages cash in hand gross, but stipulate that they are to sort out their own tax & NI, essentially making them self-employed. Is this approach OK?

And with such a set up, would I be expected to have a contract in place? And do I need to pay them for holidays, sickness etc?

Sorry to be so clueless - it's my first venture into such realms.

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why dont you check out the nanny threads here in MN? They would lots of info on this

surely you would want to pay them for holidays? and reasonable sickness?

Thanks for your responses. It is only 10 hours a week, so not really a big job. But one applicant is talking about quitting her nanny job to work for us, and I feel all responsible now!

I will post on the nanny board and link them over here if they can offer advice as employers.

Regarding cash in hand... if you are expecting to be able to tell them what to do... then I feel they are your employee. So that will mean operating Simplified PAYE or full PAYE, depending on the amount of pay and other things (see link).

Yes, as I feel they would be their employer, you would need a contract in place. It is known as a Written Statement. ACAS have a Self Help Guide to Producing a Written Statement. You would need to adapt it to suit your specific requirements - such as specific duties.

Sickness would be Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Then if they are actually sick, you can decide to pay them for that particular occasion.

Holiday: They would be entitled to statutory holiday.

Thanks a lot NannyNick. You are a wealth of information as usual.

I wasn't really expecting to tell them what to do tbh - was just going to let them get on with it. But I will look into getting a written statement prepared. Thanks for the link.

we pay our cleaner £90 a week cash. She turns up she gets paid.If she is sick or on holiday she doesnt.

I give her a £50 xmas bonus.

Its an informal arrangement and she doesnt want it any other way.

If they were a cleaner working for a cleaning agency, then I would expect the agency to be their employer. You would be the service user, and you pay the agency.

A house-keeper role is different to a cleaner, so I don't think it would be possible to say that they were self-employed.

Let's be clear about this - as an employer it is your responsibility to deduct tax and national insurance and account for it to HMRC

The reason that many cleaners are paid cash in hand is either that they are below the threshhold (supposedly) or that their employers are on the fiddle

Quattro, I realise that is the case for an employer. What i was questioning is whether housekeepers can be self-employed.

OK, so after going through in detail all the websites that NannyNick linked me to I have come to the following conclusions:

• Housekeeper will be an employee, not be self-employed
• I will be an employer but do not have to register as such, as wage of housekeeper (£80/week) is below threshold limits
• Housekeeper does not need to pay NI or tax
• I do not need to pay employer's NI contributions
• Housekeeper is entitled to 50 hrs paid hoiday a year, which can include bank holidays
• Housekeeper does not need to be paid for sickness
• We should have a written statement in place

Thanks for all your help and advice.