Cleaner

Be careful. She maybe below the tax threshold but if not and she’s avoiding paying tax AND you / your sister know then it could be considered collusion. Whatever her age it’s below the minimum wage so, equally, your sister is ‘on dodgy ground’!

Pay £12

Good luck to her. I have been on benefits and its a pittance. especially if you have children If she can earn a bit more i dont blame her. Your sister is getting a good deal at £7 an hour.

dancingnana1

Gosh all year cleaners are cheap. I pay £60 for 2hours once a fortnight.
It was £40 for 2 hours before covid but went up to £60.She has said she will review it at Christmas.! It is not that we cannot afford it but £60 is a bit over the top.

Wow you really pay a lot. I pay £15 an hour and thought that was just central London rates

Wow, £7 an hour, I live in the North East and was paying my cleaner £12.50 an hour and she was rubbish at cleaning but she was a young single mum. £7 an hour is shameful.

Is this going to be yet another thread where the OP doesn’t like the responses so doesn’t get back to us?

Out of curiosity, I looked up the rules on the Government website. It is actually the responsibility of the employer to pay any tax or NI. There should also be a formal contract. There are also rules about holiday and sick pay. It is quite complex and I know most people do not bother with all that. If you want life to be simpler, employ through an agency which deals with all the legalities.

Whether one does follow the rules or not, as others have said, paying a cleaner £7 an hour is outrageous.

I used to have a self employed carer. She charged £11 an hour. I didn't know how she paid tax or NI. I didn't ask. I paid her via Direct Payments.

I was told by LA that I could no longer use self employed carers.

This is due to the possibility of her not paying tax and NI.

Now she is paid £9.07 an hour GROSS. But she gets 5 weeks paid holiday and 1 week sick per year. She also gets a pension. She is actually better off.

So pleased that so many people can afford £12.00 per hour! That equates to more than I earned in my last management position. I suppose it depends on the area what the going rate is.

I would say on this rate she is going to be well under the personal tax allowance and wouldn't need to pay tax. At the end of the day this is her business and not yours. £7 per hour seems very cheap to me and maybe this lady really needs the money and charges less to receive some income.

How many of us have to survive on UC or other benefits!
I admire this lady‘S fortitude and she is to be congratulated for trying to keep her head above water! Compare her with folk who invest off shore to avoid paying tax! £7 is a pittance but she needs it!! Give the woman a break !

it depends if she is working over 16 hours. she can still claim welfare benefits.... once she works over 16 hours then she will have to pay tax. but i cant see you hiring her for 16 hours plus .its ok she not breaking the law.i do voluntary work yet i cant work over 16 hours or they stop my disabilty money.

I feel so sorry for the cleaner only getting £7 an hour she must be really desperate to be working for that pittance and then being judged for doing it, I was paying £15 an hour cash in hand and wouldn’t have thought it any Of my business if she paid Tax or not, just take a look at our MPs fiddling the tax on their high salaries, before judging this poor woman who’s trying hard to make a living.

She definitely doesn't earn enough to pay tax. And she should charge more. £7 an hour sounds like exploitation to me.

Where is granny rebel?

I think this could be another silly wind up thread.

As usual, you lovely ladies got to the essence of the issue.

Yes, £7 an hour is below minimum wage, and that is well below the government's comedy living wage that you can't actually live on, introduced by George Osborne, and even further below the TUC's unrealistically 'realistic' living wage. I forgot what they call it.

Just wanted to say, please don't worry about cleaners not paying tax.

Worry about giant corporations not paying tax. Osborne agreed to overlook 4billion of Vodafone's tax bill.

In these difficult times, when we are all, probably, unwittingly breaking some law or other related to lockdown (I'm high risk and worried) lets not confuse what is illegal with what is unjust.

Bung her a tenner an hour or more.

Thanks for listening to my first post,

Grumpy Old English in Wales.

I think we're worrying about the wrong thing .............
From today's Guardian -

Former Tory shipping minister Nusrat Ghani is taking up a £60,000 role for 7 hours of work per month at a firm leading a maritime consortium which successfully bid for a £33m grant she had lobbied for while she was serving in government.

If the cleaner was paying tax she would want double the £7 ph your sister pays her. Also, she is not eligible to claim benefits. That’s why we also paid our cleaner thru the lockdown.

When both boys were still living here & I was working I had a cleaner. I always paid her cash. Not my business what she does with her money. She was quite elderly so I expect she was on a pension.
I felt quite guilty having an older lady doing my cleaning but she was very up-beat & cheerful on the days I was at home for some reason so I suppose she was happy with the arrangement.

your sister won't be pleased with you!

£7 an hour is a pittance, your sister should be ashamed.

£7 an hour is below minimum wage and you would like her to ‘pay tax’.....how about paying her the going rate for the job. She may be illegal but so is £7 per hour ...If the cap fits!!!!

£7 an hour is pure exploitation! Pay her £10 at least and then you can look yourself in the mirror without shame! It's none of your business what she declares. Paying someone less than the minimum wage is encouraging dishonesty and just downright mean!

grannyrebel would you work for £7 an hour?

At my age and being disabled I need help with not only cleaning but some personal care. I have had my lovely help for four years. She mainly comes in for an hour every day but is on call if I should need her. When I had to go to hospital thirty miles away every day for five weeks for radiotheraphy she drove me there. She stayed with me overnight for seven hours while waiting for an ambulance. I pay her £13 an hour. She has a little craft business and does pay tax.
I never question people who do odd jobs and window cleaner to whom I pay cash. That is their business.
£7 an hour is disgusting.