Wow let's not hide behind screen names come out with the real story! How many girls worked for you so far! You never paid taxes after any au pairs neither nannies, shall we report you?! You fired a qualified teacher nanny for being too nice and kind to your children! I would not trust this one! Definitely not Annamike , complaining again !!!

Following on from this thread, does anyone know the status now for a Romanian au pair working in the UK? We want to employ a Romanian au pair and want to know what type of work permit etc she needs to work as an au pair. I know the rules have changed since Jan 14 but can't find on any website what they need to do to work as an au pair now - previously it was the workers accession card - does that still stand? Thanks for any help you may have.

Ha ha you could have been talking about my ex-au pair here !! Be very careful. I was made to feel terribly guilty, paying extra etc etc - when in fact she was actually being paid a lot more than others.
I paid her 140 a week, working no weekends, no bank holidays, no Xmas and New Year. Sometimes she would work as little as ten hours a week, her hours were 3.30-7.30 pm...she did no housework at all.
Sometimes because of my work she would work extra, but this was compensated by fact that instead of having just four weeks holiday she was paid whenever I took holiday, whenever she took holiday etc.
So in the last year I employed her she had over 12 weeks paid holiday.....when she realised she would be having daughter for some of the school holidays during the day she promptly booked holiday for herself!! so I had to take holiday off from work to look after daughter - while paying au pair. By the way her boyfriend stayed every weekend too.
She also complained about not being paid enough, friends being paid x and y, she even went and got a two mornings a week job - so when my daughter was ill I had to phone in sick to my work to look after her, while au pair went to other job!!! I know, I know,.reason I stuck with her is daughter liked her and I heard so many horror stories about other au pairs.
My advice is always have a contract - I didn't - try to be reasonable but don't be a sucker. I think she is on a very good deal and to be honest there are so many people desperate for an aupair job she is lucky.
My ad for a replacement got over 1,000 replies!

We pay £80 a week and our au pairs tell us that this is considered a fair amount. The job is pretty easy now as our 2 girls are 10 and 13 and don't require a lot of work. We have found many of our au pairs on aupair-world.co.uk which has low cost to sign up and plenty of applicants.

I am not a nanny but I am a qualified primary school teacher with many years full time and supply teaching experience including early years.

I would be really interested in a nanny-share or mutually nannying with another mum for a few days a week. I just have the one baby . We live in Tooting.

I'd prefer LO to have a happy day with other children in a home/family setting - rather than in nursery care

I'd really like to hear from other mums who feel similarly

HI MGMidgit - Wow! That was an amazing explanation. Thank you so much. Really helps clarify it for me. Really appreciate it. Did you end up hiring a nanny then?

Nannies have experience and are looking after children as a career so likely to have relevant training/qualifications/checkable glowing references proving relevant experience. Au pairs are visiting the UK for a short period (typically up to a year at the most) in order to improve their English and have a bit of an adventure/cultural experience. They don't have much childcare experience, their English may not be very good and they would not be likely to compete successfully for a job as a nanny against more qualified candidates. They also get 'looked after' more in a family than a nanny would expect. Their board and lodging is provided, they are often given support to help them settle in and find their way around a new country. They are treated more as a family member and may be included in social occasions or invited on family outings. They also work part-time, typically before and after school hours whereas nannies often work long days. Au pairs are not considered safe to be left alone with babies or young toddlers for long periods of time because of lack of sufficient experience and training (and also because they may lack the motivation to do it well since they haven't chosen childcare as a career). Their pay is essentially 'pocket money' as all living expenses are already covered by the host family.

A nanny would be expected to be capable of juggling more than one young child/baby at a time for full (10 hour) days, capable of taking initiative to deal with the unexpected, knowledgeable about the care of babies and children and to play a key role in aiding the babies/children's development. I would suggest that a quoted pay expectation of £12 per hour for a nanny is based on a live-out arrangement so the nanny would need to pay for her accommodation, food and other living expenses out of that.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but what is the difference between an au-pair and a nanny?
I have recently contacted a few agencies about getting a nanny and have been advised that the going rate is £12 an hour. Thus at 35 hours a week that would be a whopping £420. Therefore based on that comparison, I think £135 for an au-pair seems alarmingly low. That works out to just £3.70 an hour - that would be impossible for anyone to live on. Am I missing something major here?

At £130pw she is still under the yearly personal allowance (tax wise) and we don't need to pay any NI. However, we wanted to have a clean contract with her and register it.
Within the EU there is no age restrictions for au-pairs. Age was a problem with Romanian and Bulgarian up to Jan 1st but I think now it is same as rest of the EU.
Thanks again for all replies as very useful.

Actually, my understanding is that the age is irrelevant. There is no 'au pair' category in the UK any more and whether or not tax is payable is dependant on the amount of income. At £130 per week she would need to registered as an employee as it is over and above the National Insurance lower earnings limit. However, at that level of pay there may not be any deductions to make so it would simply be a case of registering and filing a pay record in 'real time' using HMRC's software. The thresholds where deductions for NI and tax need to be made are available on HMRC's website. Most people pay below the National Insurance Lower Earnings limit as it avoids all the 'red tape'.

130£ for an au pair is a lot. But she is 28, and legally the maximum age you can be an au pair is 27, so you need to be careful in case you are not paying tax for her money. Au pair is for share care, 25 hours per week, and a maximum of 2 evenings babysitting. But as I said you can only be au pair until the age 27. If she's 28 her status is mother help and unfortunately you need to pay tax for her income. Just keep an eye open on case this will get ugly and turn into some thing bad.

on the back of this, we have an au pair and pay well within the amounts everyone is mentioned, not £130! and our au pair does 25 hours per week. We are new to au pairs, however, and are on holiday next week. Obviously I normally keep a very well stocked fridge and she will eat things I have prepared previously eg spaghetti bolognese and chilli etc...When I go shopping I also ask if there is anything in particular she would like. When we're away not sure what to do - do I give her some extra cash to buy food? Or just get a few basics in? what does everyone tend to do? Advice appreciated thank you!

We used the agency A2Z au pairs as someone on our street recommended them. I initially thought the agency fees were a bit hefty but they have really worked hard to make sure i found the right person and all the checks references were done (including criminal record checks), had great advice and prep with the au pair which has helped with an easy transition for everyone (particularly my husband who was a bit more out of his depth with someone else living in the house), and have done a lot of follow up since the au pair started to make sure all going well and to see if they can help.

I had not thought of having an au pair prior to reading this post. Sounds like the ideal option for me. I do have a spare room, welcoming disposition and good location. Would not be able to pay much. Any recommendations for agencies and details of their rates, or info on how to find a good au pair independently would be v much appreciated...?

We went through an agency when we hired our au pair and had them advise on everything. We have an au pair plus which is 30 hours a week plus 2 nights babysitting. They advised this was £80-£90 a week. If we needed the au pair to work extra hours it was £3.50 an hour. We pay a bit more and we also pay our au pairs mobile phone top up (which was optional). The main issue with au pairs being paid what they are paid (apart from the obvious costs of food and board in London is covered) is that if they are paid much more than this they will need to start paying tax.

I do know that to get an au pair outside of London is a bit harder as less demand so I know families having to offer a bit more like a gym membership or transport costs to get applicants. Before I had a live in au pair I had another au pair work extra hours for me and a friend as the family she worked for had school age children and she was free between school drop offs and pick ups, she was £7 an hour but she always gave priority to the family she lived with and helped them over school holidays.

Did you hire your au pair through an agency? Maybe you should call them for some advice on how to handle this. We were lucky with our au pair, every time I pay her more for extra hours we have a fight on our hands to get her to accept the extra money.