How much to pay?

Thank you again for your contributions to my cogitations. I feel I am sorted now and think I am going to go along the £35 per week route. Sometimes there won't be much to do anyway but when DH is back in hospital I will have someone to help with personal things. If I have my help popping in it will give me much more confidence and DH will be able to relax too.. She is very happy with the agreement we have made and will not be doing regular cleaning as I have another 'treasure' who does that for me. She lives less than a minute away and we will just fit things in as her schedule allows and when she is passing the door. All good!

Irenelily sometimes words are totally inadequate but my thoughts and prayers are with you especially now as you carry on by yourself. I hope you have friends and family around you.

? Irenelily

I have always found that if you pay people well and value them it works to everyone’s advantage.

I don't think the lady who is prepared to come in works for an agency.
The cleaner does, but its not her who is going to be coming in.

irenelily

Ann quite!

I don't think much could be achieved in half an hour, perhaps alternate days for an hour prepping 2 days veg at a time they would be fine in the fridge. Trouble with a private arrangement , if she is ill or on holiday what happens ? And if the agency she works for finds out she is doing this she could be out of a job.

Can I just point yet again the OP has a cleaner. It is small daily tasks she needs help with.
Please read and digest.

Had you thought of having her for 40 - 45 mins each day and pay her £12. If she is going to come in every day it is quite a commitment she is making to you. She will have to travel even if only 5-10 mins away and she will have to pay her accountant and her own NIC. Are you planning on paying her holiday pay or sick pay if she is unwell? If not I think you have to pay her more for her hourly rate to cover this. I don't think it is worth her while coming for £5 if she has to travel 5-10 mins each way and it takes me ages to change a double duvet cover and sheets. I buy carrots and swede ready chopped in a bag from Morrison's. It is probably cheaper than paying a person to peel and chop it. You can also buy pre-prepared runner beans and cauliflower and broccoli. She could probably hang out washing for you when good weather or do a bit of ironing. If you wanted her to clean windows, shop for food or clean the oven she would need a lot longer.

Irenelily??

Irenelily, I am so sorry. My thoughts are with you.

Just recently when my DH was in hospital after a fall from his scooter and a subsequent hip replacement, thefamily and I googled local private carers, we found many results listing carers, their qualifications and charges. I would have interviewed a couple, but sadly my DH passed away last week. I hope you find someone that suits.

I have a friend who is a retired midwife and she looks after an elderly couple, who live in her road she cleans and shops for them and they pay her £350 per week. She visit them 5 days a week more if needed.

All the jobs I've been looking at pay less now than they did years ago!
7.50 an hour: minimum wage in most cases, with an ever growing list of requirements and responsibilities.

When the elderly lady I kept my eye on checked with social services how much a carer cost t.hey told her £10.00 per hour

*prepping, over.

I think if she's changing the bedlinen and orepping veg thst would take iver 30 minutes. Remember, that she won't have time to chat or be waylaid unless you want to pay her the full
£10. Prepping veg means getting it out and peeling and clearing away so that's 15 mins. Personally, I'd rather do a full hour than 30 minutes and go through an agency to be sure of someone arriving.
I hope you find a suitable helper.

£10 an hour in her hand would be acceptable, as she currently gets less than that from the agency and would possibly have to pay tax on that.
As others have said, its not worth getting out of bed for £5, so if she does work for you then try and arrange her tasks so that they can be completed in an hour or nearly an hour, possibly meaning that you may not need her services on a daily basis.

I have self funding grant and my carer comes in for 1 1/2 hrs a day and is paid £10.00 an hr. hope that is helpful.

I was going to suggest that if the woman comes in for half an hour each day, then you round the money up a bit, to say, 30 or 35 pounds a week.

I pay my cleaner £10 ph. She helps me out for 2 hours once a week.

Yeah but the actual carer won't get all that they probably still get £10 an hour or less, even if the owner is doing it she has overheads to pay for

A friend of ours has a carer three times a day and pays around £13.00 per hour. This is from a small private agency where the owner does a lot of the caring herself. Bigger agencies charge about £15.00 per hour.

I wouldn't feel comfortable paying under £10 minimum a visit. £10 an hour sounds ok but £5 for a half hour visit doesn't, somehow. As said above, get your vegetables ready-prepared delivered from the supermarket and keep your money for help with tasks you can't get around any other way, like changing bedsheets. Then you might be able to compress it into a couple of one hour visits rather than several 3o minute ones.

Sorry £5 is insulting. You have to pay at least minimum hourly wage for any time up to an hour. And as person is self employed with no benefits of employment holiday pay, sickness pay etc you should pay at least £15. And that is a low rate.