Online Safety Tips for Nannies

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a significant rise in internet fraud, phishing scams and other ‘traps’ that aim to trick victims into handing over money, providing sensitive information or even putting themselves in physical danger.

To help you stay safe when applying for your next nanny job, we’ve put together our top online safety tips for nannies:

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New Year Resolutions for Parents and Childcare Professionals

How many New Year’s resolutions have you seen or heard from your family, friends and co-workers so far? How many of those were about weight, smoking, drinking, or travel? How many of those were about parenting or childcare? I’m guessing the latter was a significantly smaller number than the former.

This New Year, wouldn’t it be nice for us to make a New Year’s resolution that will not only benefit ourselves but our children and the rest of our family? That’s why we’ve put together a list of areas that we can all try to improve upon in the New Year when it comes to caring for our children.

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Fun Elf on the Shelf Ideas!

How are you getting on with that mischievous little man (or woman) known as Elf on the Shelf. It can be difficult to think of new mischief for your elf to get up to, especially if this isn’t the first year he’s come to stay.

That’s why we’ve put together plenty of new Elf on the Shelf ideas to help delight children of all ages this Christmas!

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Helping Children Deal with Bereavement and Loss

Bereavement can occur without warning at any time of our lives and it’s important to understand how as a nanny, you can help the children in your care deal with the losses that they may face.

Loss can be exceptionally difficult for children to understand as they are not always able to process the emotions and thoughts that follow, which is why it’s important that children have a strong support network at times of great upset.

Bereavement can be the death of a loved one, a friend or a pet, it could also be the loss of someone close to them, which can often be a result of divorce or separation of a child’s parents.

To help you further help the children in your care deal with the losses they face, we’ve put together the following advice:

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How to Keep Kids Active in Winter

As temperatures plummet it understandable to want to retreat to the house where it’s warmer, but the bad weather shouldn’t be an excuse for children to swap playing outside for lounging in front of the TV.

That’s why we’ve put together some simple ideas to help keep your children active this winter:

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FURLOUGH 5.0

Our partners at www.PayrollForNannies.co.uk  provide payroll advice for parents and nannies and have provided this content. For more advice and support please get in touch with them.

On Saturday 31st October, the government announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) will continue until 1 December 2020 with grants covering 80% of wages, while implementation of the Job Support Scheme (JSS) has been delayed. This change has been brought about by the lock down to be introduced from Thursday, 5 November. Many MPs felt that the JSS provided insufficient support during a lock down.

The new national restrictions will apply from 5 November to 2 December 2020, but the financial support for employers applies from 1 November as the furlough scheme operates on full calendar months. October’s wages will still only be reclaimable at 60% of nanny’s standard gross, but as of November 80% will once again be reimbursed.

How much can be reclaimed under CJRS?

The CJRS will continue in force with the same conditions as applied in August 2020. The grant paid to employers will pay for 80% of the employee’s current wages for time not worked, up to £2,500 per month. The employer must pay for all the employer’s NIC and employer’s minimum workplace pension contributions on those wages.

The employer can top-up the employee’s furlough pay at their own expense if they wish to.

Which employees qualify?

Employees who were on the employer’s payroll on 30 October 2020 will qualify to be included in CJRS claim for November; they do not have to have been included in an earlier CJRS claim. The employee must have been paid by the employer, and that pay must have been reported on a RTI return before midnight on 30 October.

Flexi furlough

Flexible furlough will be permitted alongside full-time furlough, so nannies may be brought back part-time to say, set up the premises for the lifting of national restrictions, or to prepare for Brexit.

The same rules for flexible furlough will continue to apply as they have done since 1 July, so the employee may be furloughed for a few days or hours per week. There appears to be no minimum time set for furloughed hours or working hours.

However, each furlough claim must be for a period of at least seven consecutive calendar days.

How to claim?

If you would like to furlough your nanny in November, whether or not you have chosen to do so in the past, just let us know the date from which this will start and whether or not you would like to top their wages up to full pay and we will take care of everything for you.

FURLOUGH 4.0

FURLOUGH 4.0 
Our partners at www.PayrollForNannies.co.uk  provide payroll advice for parents and nannies and have provided this content. For more advice and support please get in touch with them.

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a new raft of support measures connected to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.  This seems to be a response to the growing lock-down and complaints that the government was not doing enough to assist businesses and their employees.

The Job Support Scheme

When originally announced, the JSS – which will come into effect on 1 November – saw employers paying a third of their employees’ wages for hours not worked and required employees to be working 33% of their normal hours.

This announcement reduces the employer contribution to those unworked hours to just 5%, and reduces the minimum hours requirements to 20%, so those working just one day a week will be eligible.

Employers will pay their staff normally for hours they work. Then, they’ll be paid two-thirds of their pay for the remaining hours (with the employer covering 5% and the government paying 95%). So people will still see lower take-home pay – we have prepared the table below.

Normal Hours                    JSS Hours                             Take home percentage of contracted hours
20%                                        80%                                        74%
25%                                        75%                                        75%
30%                                        70%                                        76%
33%                                        67%                                        77%
35%                                        65%                                        78%
40%                                        60%                                        80%
45%                                        55%                                        81%
50%                                        50%                                        83%
55%                                        45%                                        85%
60%                                        40%                                        86%
65%                                        35%                                        88%
70%                                        30%                                        90%
75%                                        25%                                        92%
80%                                        20%                                        93%
85%                                        15%                                        95%
90%                                        10%                                        97%
95%                                        5%                                          98%

The maximum payment will be £1541.75 per month. The cap is set above median earnings for employees in August at a reference salary of £3,125 per month. The employer will be reimbursed in arrears for the government contribution. The relevant employee(s) must not be on a redundancy notice.

The JSS is intended to protect viable jobs over next six months after the furlough scheme ends at the end of the month.

All small and medium-sized firms with a UK PAYE scheme and UK bank account are eligible – but large firms are only eligible if their turnover has fallen in the pandemic and can document this. The JSS is open to firms who have not used the earlier CJRS scheme.

That means that if someone was being paid £587 for their unworked hours, the government would be contributing £543 and their employer only £44.

Employers will continue to be entitled to receive the £1,000 Job Retention Bonus: https://src-time.co.uk/the-job-retention-bonus-explained/ 

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

As part of the Winter Economy Plan, Rishi Sunak had announced an extension to the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).

There was to be a lump sum to cover November to January next year, worth 20 per cent of average monthly profits, capped at £1,875.  There was also to be a second grant for February to April 2021of an unspecified value.

Today’s announcement sets the amount of profits covered by the two forthcoming self-employed grants from 20 per cent to 40 per cent, meaning the maximum grant will increase from £1,875 to £3,750.

Business Support Grants

The Chancellor has also announced approved additional funding to support cash grants of up to £2,100 per month primarily for businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sector who may be adversely impacted by the restrictions in high-alert level areas.

These grants will be available retrospectively for areas who have already been subject to restrictions and come on top of higher levels of additional business support for Local Authorities moving into Tier 3.

Local Authorities (LAs) will be able to support businesses in high-alert level areas which are not legally closed, but which are severely impacted by the restrictions on socialising. The funding LAs will receive will be based on the number of hospitalities, hotel, B&B, and leisure businesses in their area.

LAs will receive a funding amount that will be the equivalent of:For properties with a rateable value of £15,000 or under, grants of £934 per month.For properties with a rateable value of between £15,000-£51,000, grants of £1,400 per month.For properties with a rateable value of £51,000, grants of £2,100 per month.This is equivalent to 70% of the grant amounts given to legally closed businesses (worth up to £3,000/month).

Local Authorities will also receive a 5% top up amount to these implied grant amounts to cover other businesses that might be affected by the local restrictions, but which do not neatly fit into these categories. It will be up to Local Authorities to determine which businesses are eligible for grant funding in their local areas, and what precise funding to allocate to each business – the above levels are an approximate guide.

Businesses in Very High alert level areas will qualify for greater support whether closed (up to £3,000/month) or open. In the latter case support is being provided through business support packages provided to Local Authorities as they move into the alert level.
 
SRC-Time are one of the South East’s leading accountancy firms in advising the self-employed and partnerships in all aspects of their tax affairs and we are able to assist in any issue raised above.

Things to consider when employing a non UK nanny

Our partners at www.PayrollForNannies.co.uk  provide payroll advice for parents and nannies and have provided this content. For more advice and support please get in touch with them.

It is important to make sure you take proper steps to make sure nanny can be employed legally in the UK. If you do not you could face a £20,000 penalty or worst case scenario a 2 year prison sentence!

You must take a photocopy for identity check of a passport, birth certificate or national ID card. We would always recommend you see an original version before taking a copy.

An EEA (European Economic Area), employers must check their right to work documents, take a photocopy, and make sure they are from the EEA country.

For a more detailed guide:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441957/employers_guide_to_acceptable_right_to_work_documents_v5.pdf

Small Employer Relief

Our partners at www.PayrollForNannies.co.uk  provide payroll advice for parents and nannies and have provided this content. For more advice and support please get in touch with them.

In order to qualify for small employer relief, your liability for national insurance for the last complete tax year needs to be £45,000 or less.

An employer hiring a nanny will often meet the criteria of small employer relief.

This means that for statutory payments such as maternity pay, paternity pay, shared parental pay and adoption pay, you can reclaim 100% of these payments plus an additional 3% to help towards the cost of your employers NI.

It is important that this is noted in the payroll software, so if you ever have statutory payments, they will get deducted off your tax and national insurance liability each quarter.

Employers with a liability of more than £45,000.00 in last complete tax year can only claim back 92% of the above statutory payments.

Benefits in Kind

Our partners at www.PayrollForNannies.co.uk  provide payroll advice for parents and nannies and have provided this content. For more advice and support please get in touch with them.

Benefits in kind are benefits which both Employers and Employees can receive from their employment, which are not included in their salary.

As an employee, you pay tax on company benefits.  The amount of tax you pay, depends on what kind of benefits you get and their value and it is the employer who deducts the amounts from the employee’s gross earnings. However, some company benefits, are tax free.

 Most common benefits in Kind for nannies are listed below:

Private Car Mileage / Fuel Allowance

– Is not a taxable benefit if the employee is using the car during working hours. If they are using the car to get to and from work and outside their normal working hours, then this would be classed as a benefit in kind.  If nanny is using their own car whilst they are at work, up to 0.45p per mile is tax free.  Anything above this amount would be classed as a benefit and kind and will need to be reported to HMRC.

Private Medical Insurance

Subscriptions and Professional Fees

  • Such as paying for nanny’s Ofsted registration, DBS check, Nanny’s Public Liability Insurance

Living Accommodation

If you are providing living accommodation where the nanny has separate living quarters to the employer, this is classed as a benefit in kind, along with any bills and furniture you provide

Beneficial loans – Interest free or low interest

  • Any low –interest or interest free loans above the value of £10,000 are a Benefit in Kind.

Flights – which do not include family holidays if you are taking the nanny with you

Any declarations for Benefits in Kind need to be submitted to HMRC via for P11(D) by 6th July each year.  As an employer, there will be Class 1A National Insurance of 13.8% on the taxable benefit.

For more help and advice on this or any other payroll related matter please contact our recommended partners Payroll for Nannies https://www.payrollfornannies.co.uk/