Paying cleaner

watermeadow

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.

I don’t think I would be willing to declare so openly on a public forum that I was breaking the law.

Paying cash in hand without paying NI for your employee is illegal. Likewise, your employee may be breaking the law if he/she fails to pay tax on the earnings.

You could also be in very expensive hot water if your employee has an accident while working for you, since you don’t have employers’ insurance. I’m not sure that ranting about Amazon will help you in court.

A lot of people do pay cash in hand - for gardeners, decorators, plumbers, babysitters. There’s a whole black market out there. A friend of a friend recommends someone. Always has been around. The person wanting the work done pays less than the going rate and the one doing the work doesn’t declare it and pay tax so both sides are happy with the arrangement. This isn’t going to change any time soon.

I think the disappearance of cash might help this, and this year has certainly moved that forward.

My cleaner is self employed as she cleans for lots of other people. If I chose to pay her cash then it is her responsibility to declare it and pay the relevant NI, Tax etc.

As it is, I actually do a bank transfer.