Whenever you hire a nanny to take care of your child, that means you have become an employer. Therefore, as an employer, you must meet certain obligations like providing a pension, national insurance and paying tax for the nanny.
What Legal Obligations Do I Have as an Employer?
There are numerous obligations you need to comply with when you employ a nanny. The following are some of the most important ones:
Check For the Right to Work Within the UK
You are required to check that your nanny has the legal right to work within the UK. Check the identification documents of your applicant like identity card, birth certificate, and passport before you make a formal employment offer.
Tax Contributions
It is your responsibility to deduct and pay the income tax contributions of your nanny’s. Get in touch with HR Revenue and Customers and register yourself as a new employer and get a PAYE scheme set up.
Also, you will need to keep records on the payments that you have made, for your nanny and yourself.
National Insurance Contributions
You are responsible to deduct and pay the national insurance contributions of your nanny’s. They are payable on the salary of your nanny if she earns over a certain threshold. The contributions from your nanny and you are calculated as a percentage of the nanny’s earnings.
Liability Insurance
You need to have employer’s liability insurance, that covers you in case your nanny is injured while working for you or becomes ill. You might be covered already by other insurance policies that you hold, but carefully check that.
Employment Contract
Before your nanny starts to work, you should have a written contract in place, or within two months of her starting date. Include a description of the duties, and her hours, salary, and holiday entitlement.
If any of the details in the contract change, then your nanny and you should agree on them.
Payslip
You must provide your nanny with a payslip every month or week, that shows her earning, as well as whatever deductions, are made.
National Minimum Wage
Your nanny must be paid the minimum wage at least. However, you will probably be paying a lot more than that.
Live-in nannies charge around £300 to £350 a week. Slightly more is charged by day nannies, on average around £400 to £475. Keep in mind that your nanny might have salary expectations of her own based on the duties required and her qualifications, skills, and experience.
Paid Annual Leave
Each employee, whether part-time or full-time, is entitled to receiving the equivalent of 5.6 weeks of annual leave. In this allowance, you can decide whether or not bank holidays are included.
The holidays can be negotiated with the nanny.
Pension
If the nanny that you hire is between 22 years old and state retirement age and is earning over £10,000 per year, then you are required to set a pension scheme up for the nanny. You will need to make a contribution to the pension scheme every month based on the gross salary of your nanny.
Termination of Employment Notice
During a nanny’s first month of employment, your nanny or you should give a one week’s notice to terminate the contract. After that, usually, one month’s notice, although this can be negotiated with your nanny. Be sure to put the agreed upon notice period into the contract.
Maximum Working Hours
You cannot insist that an employee work over 48 hours a week. You might have heard the law called the working time directive.
If the nanny is over 18 years old, she can work over 48 hours per week if both of you sign an agreement. However, you cannot force her to sign the agreement, and she is allowed to change her mind any time if she gives you a week’s notice at least.
Statutory Maternity Rights
Your nanny is entitled to get maternity leave if she becomes pregnant while she is working for you.
If you are not sure of where you should begin with all of the responsibilities, there is assistance that is available. There are companies that will do your payroll for you, such as Payroll for Nannies, and make it relatively painless to pay your national insurance and tax contributions. Some offer pension services also.