Paying cleaner

Think you've answered your own question here. Do remember, though, you will be setting a precedent and not to forget in the future.

Law of supply and demand.?

Round here cleaners are like gold dust. She gets £12 an hour but how much do you need to pay to keep her is the question really.

Our arrangement with our cleaners have always been that if we cancel them we pay, if they cancel, we don't.

Just meant to add, you should have really decided that before she started working for you!

Yes it depends on how much you value her services. As Kittylester said this should have been decided when you offered her the job. Could you pay her £12 as a retainer for the two weeks. Doesn't seem a great deal really.

I also agree it should have been sorted out when she started , I used to do some cleaning for a couple of elderly people, but if they were going away for a few days I didn’t expect them to pay me, I just got paid for the work I did when I was there, but do what you feel is right for you, everyone is different watermeadow

Are you in the U.K. and paying her cash in hand, as this seems to imply? If so, please reconsider, and put this on a legal basis.

I agree with geekesse.

EVERYTHING should be in writing and understood by both sides before signing.

Do you normally pay over Christmas ? If so pay her a weeks wage. Don't put her on a legal contract for £15 a week.

If you can afford it how would you feel if you didn’t pay her ?
I know what I would do .

My wonderful clearer won't accept payment for holidays.
I'm always trying to up her money and she refuses all the time. I'm so lucky to have her. She goes beyond just cleaning sometimes.
She also cleans for my daughter, my sister, and she did for my old mum twice a week. She's been in our lives for years. She's only in her early 50's.
During lockdown when she was unable to come in, for a few weeks, per Boris.
I compensated her by paying her 50 %extra for a while, to make this up to her.
This was a real achievement, getting her to take it,
Mine is worth her weight in gold, just do what makes her happy and she's comfortable with. If she happy with holiday pay do it, but don't feel awkward if she refuses so get her a nice big Christmas present and extra cash in a christmas card works. I always get her a special gift. She's an important person in our house and family.

I do not pay for holidays, mainly because she is away for a month or more. I do give around £30 extra cash at Christmas.

My gem of a cleaner has one holiday a year and I don't deduct anything from her monthly standing order. I also give her an extra payment for her birthday and at Christmas. Good cleaners are worth their weight in gold.

I cleaned privately for years . My rule was that I would only take money for what I did ! If I took holidays = no pay . If they took holidays I was usually given work to do in their absence or they insisted that they pay me !

My cleaner come through an agency. If I cancel her, I pay as usual. But she is flexible and we do tend to juggle the dates a bit to avoid a cancellation. I pay the Agency £14 per hour.

I agree Largolass. I appreciate my cleaner and treat her accordingly, it’s not difficult.

I don't have a clean now but I have always my cleaners for holiday, upto 4 weeks a year. Seems reasonable to me.

I would think that cleaners are entitled to at least 4 weeks paid holiday per year.

I am not a lawyer. This us just chat in a chat forum.
Apparently the law is that is a A does work B for money then if A is running a business, all B has to do is pay the money. National Insurance, insurance, income tax, and so on are the responsibility of A. So A could be a self-employed individual duly registered as such or a business that sends a human to do the work. If A is not either of those, then (except *) B is the employer with all of the obligations over National Insurance, insurance, income tax and so that that implies.

The * is that I read somewhere that there is possibly a special arrangement if the work is personal care as in washing of a human with a disability who arranges that for him or herself, but not for gardening, housework at all, nor for personal care if the arrangement is made for one human by someone else. But I don't know the details.

It is important to understand where financial liability rests if the cleaner has an accident while at work.

It may well cost more to do it through an agency so that all the person having the work done has to do is pay the money, but that is far better than ending up in court or paying a penalty notice to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs or having o sell the house to pay compensation for an injury because as employer not having had the required insurance policy.

I have found the following. It does not actually mention a part-time cleaner.

www.gov.uk/au-pairs-employment-law

www.gov.uk/employment-status/selfemployed-contractor

This is an interesting discussion. Espcially the person who wrote about the legal regulations.
We have an immigrant cleaner who is reliable and thorough and we've become fond of her. We pay her about £14 ph because she's a single Mum with 2 little boys..She doesn't take a tea break. We pay her when we cancel eg during Covid bans last year.
I had an accident recently and she offered a few times to wash me down in the shower but I felt embarassed about it so I said no.. She did wash my hair though.so I think maybe they have a person who checks the legal regulations and advises them.

ps thanks to ElderlyPerson.

Thanks for replies. Talking about legal footing, contracts, employment law are all irrelevant.I always pay cash in hand for small jobs done for small payments. I’ll start paying tax on these when the government start extracting the proper tax out of Amazon and all the billionaires in this country.
I’ve been very hard up for most of my life and think £12 per hour is good pay but I only need one hour’s work done most weeks so it’s not a lot. I shall pay her for her fortnight’s holiday and wish I could go on holiday too.