Paying for childcare cash in hand - what's the view? Post Reply

[actuallyadad]

It's illegal both for employer and employee. And ultimately that will be a problem is there's a dispute etc later on.

There's no shortage of nanny jobs here. She should move to another family.

[DietCokefan]

To “daddy daycare rocks”, I think you have missed one difference between paying cleaners and paying nannies. By some HMRC quirk nannies cannot be self-employed, they have to be employed. So there isn’t an option to pay them and then deal with their earnings as a self-employed worker. HMRC allows domestic cleaners to be self-employed, hence why it is legitimate to pay them cash; it is reasonable to assume they are self-employed, and they therefore deal with reporting their income.
The rules do appear inconsistent, but there we are.

[Beancounter]

Love your reply, Kitkat04!

[foodeditorjo]

It's not confined to childcare: what about the tradesmen who are paid in cash so that the customer can avoid the VAT on top? This kind of thing is rife! And maybe, if this nanny does any other work, she should set herself up as self-employed/freelance and pay the tax/NI herself if she really wants the job, and ask for a higher hourly rate to cover at least some of this. I hear from a nanny friend of lots of appalling behaviour from parents who expect (rightly) a good job from the people looking after their children, but then don't pay the full hourly rate if they are paying for a part of an hour. Or quibble over the hourly rate in the first place, and negotiate down to peanuts, but still want a high-quality service. Some people almost seem to resent paying for childcare, yet they are putting their trust in someone to take care of their most important possession: their children. It makes me laugh, frankly, that these same women will think nothing of going out and spending £300 on a pair of boots. Priorities...

[dudette]

Foodeditorjo - nannies generally can't set themselves up at self-employed - HMRC won't allow it, presumably because of the sort of unscrupulous employers we're discussing here. And although I agree with you when it comes to paying tradesmen, don't forget you're not their employer so it's a bit different.