Discrimination

It is against the law to treat someone less favourably than someone else because of a personal characteristic such as religion, sex, gender reassignment or age.

Discrimination can include:

not hiring someone
selecting a particular person for redundancy
paying someone less than another worker without good reason

You can discriminate against someone even if you do not intend to. For example, you can discriminate indirectly by offering working conditions or rules that disadvantage one group of people more than another.

Discrimination in Job adverts

You must not state or imply in a job advert that you’ll discriminate against anyone. This includes saying that you are not able to cater for workers with a disability.

Only use phrases like ‘recent graduate’ or ‘highly experienced’ when these are actual requirements of the job. Otherwise you could discriminate against younger or older people who might not have had the opportunity to get qualifications.

Where you advertise might cause indirect discrimination – for example, advertising only in men’s magazines.

Nanny and Additional Employment

When nanny gets an additional job whilst still in your employ, it is her responsibility to make sure her tax codes in each employment are correct.

As an employer, you could always notify her of her tax situation in your employment and what should happen in her 2^nd job. This way you have mitigated any risk of an under payment for nanny and potentially your costs increasing if you have agreed a net wage.

If you are nanny’s main job and have the tax code 1250L for her, if she gets another job, Basic Rate tax (BR) must be applied in her other job. This can be indicated by nanny completing a starter checklist and ticking statement C –

https://public-online.hmrc.gov.uk/lc/content/xfaforms/profiles/forms.html?contentRoot=repository:///Applications/PersonalTax_iForms/1.0/SC&template=SC.xdp

Bank Holidays

Bank Holidays 2020 2020 is upon us and it is always handy to have a list of the bank holidays for the year and what day of the week they fall on. These are the dates of the bank holidays in 2020 for England.
1 January	Wednesday	New Year’s Day
10 April	Friday	Good Friday
13 April	Monday	Easter Monday
8 May	Friday	Early May Bank Holiday
25 May	Monday	Spring bank holiday
31 August	Monday	Summer bank holiday
25 December	Friday	Christmas Day
28 December	Monday	Boxing Day

If a bank holiday is on a weekend, a ‘substitute’ weekday becomes a bank holiday, normally the following Monday.

It is worth noting that if nanny does not work 5 days a week that she is still entitled to bank holidays on a pro rata basis, for example if nanny only works 3 days per week then she is still entitled to 3/5ths of the 8 bank holidays whether her working day falls on a bank holiday or not.

How to Keep your Nanny Happy

A good nanny is like gold dust. Once you’ve found a nanny you love – and your children love – you will want to do all you can to keep her. Keeping your nanny happy is important, and as her employer it falls on your shoulders to make sure she is treated fairly.

Following are some important points to remember as an employer of a nanny.

Trust your nanny

By employing her, allowing her to be with your children unsupervised and maybe even by having her live in your home, you have expressed your trust of her. If you then come home from work and quiz her about the day, question her discipline methods or otherwise act like you’re suspicious of her, she will quickly become frustrated. If you have a problem with the way that she is doing her job, it should be discussed openly and dealt with promptly. It is important for nannies, parents and children to be happy in their working relationship, so she would much rather discuss any issues you have in a professional manner.

Your nanny’s time is her time

If you have a live-in nanny, you must be firm about the boundaries that have been set. If your nanny works, for example, Monday to Friday 8-6, the weekends and evenings are her time. This means that the children shouldn’t be allowed to knock on her door, and she shouldn’t be called upon to work in any kind of capacity. Having said that, your nanny may not mind the children popping in to see her on a Saturday morning, and if she’s not busy she might not have a problem with watching them whilst you pop to the shops quickly, but these boundaries should be set in advance. Again, open and honest discussion from the start is key to a happy working relationship.

Leave the home how you would like it left

Nannies are not usually employed as housekeepers too, but just as a stay-at-home parent would, she will pick up after herself and the children throughout the day, leaving the house in a respectable state for when you arrive home to take over. In return, it is not too much for her to expect the house to be left in the same way for her when she arrives to work in the morning. It is not fair to expect your nanny to arrive to a sink full of dirty dishes and the school uniforms in the laundry basket needing to be ironed.

Make your nanny feel valued

Your nanny is your employee, but she is also a valued member of your family. If she feels unappreciated, she will likely look elsewhere for work. It is not difficult to show your appreciation of her without crossing professional boundaries. Offering a bonus once or twice a year is a great way to make her feel important – this could be a monetary bonus, or some extra paid holiday time. Little things, like remembering her birthday and having the children make cards for her, will really make your nanny feel as though she is a welcome and valued member of your family.

Keeping hold of a good nanny is important, and not just for your own convenience. Having a constant stream of different caregivers is not good for children, who need to form attachments to those who look after them.

Nanny and Private use of Car

If you have provided nanny with private use of a car, you need to inform HMRC straightaway. The quickest way is to complete a form P46 car

By notifying them straightaway, they will reduce nanny’s tax code the month she is given the car.

Failure to tell them when she has the car, will mean her tax code will be coded incorrectly causing an under payment.

Even though you have notified HMRC of the car via a P46 car, you will need to complete a P11d and pay Class 1A National Insurance on the benefit amount.

Please see link below

www.gov.uk/tell-hmrc-company-car

30 Hours Free Childcare

The criteria for 30 hours for funded childcare, is that you must earn £131.36 a week which equates to 16 hours at the national minimum wage or Living Wage.

The 30 hours a week is for 38 weeks of the year and is for children who are aged 3 or 4 this equates to 1,140 hours per year.

You will not be able to claim this, if you or your partner has a taxable income of over £100,000, the child does not usually live with you, if the child is fostered or if you are from outside the EEA and it states you can’t access public funds on your UK residence card.

To register for funded childcare or for more questions:

https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Nanny or Au Pair

Age and Cultural exchange programme

An au pair is between the ages of 18-30 and comes to the UK to learn or perfect her English in exchange for childcare.

A nanny can be any age and does not take part in a cultural exchange programme.

Wage and working hours

Au pairs can only work on average 30 hours a week and on top of their accommodation will normally get what is classed as ‘pocket money’. ‘Pocket money’ on average is £100.00 per week and as long as they earn less than £118.00 per week and have no other income this does not need to be declared to HMRC.

A nanny receives a wage in line with the national minimum wage.

Language courses

Au pairs must have the chance to attend a language course.

A nanny does not have to attend a language course.

Employee/family

An au pair is seen as a temporary family member.

A nanny is seen as an employee.

Legalities

An au pair needs a visa specific to an au pair.

Nannies who are coming from abroad need a work visa or permit. A nanny cannot work under an au pair visa.

Christmas Bonus

It is that time of year, you may want to give nanny a Christmas bonus, but remember it must be processed through the payroll!

As HMRC class this as taxable income.

If you have decided to give nanny a Christmas bonus, whether it be £50 or £1,000, you must declare it and it is subject to tax and NI.

If you have agreed a net bonus, there will be additional tax and national insurance on top of this amount. Whereas, if you have agreed a gross bonus, (please don’t give them that amount), as tax and national insurance will need to be deducted from that and you then pay nanny the net amount.

A gift such as a voucher, chocolates, wine will not be seen as a benefit in kind as long as it does not exceed £50.00.

Payroll Terms

These are some of the most common terms used in payroll.

Gross pay – this is the pay before deductions for tax, national insurance, pension and student loans. The gross pay includes overtime, commission, bonuses, statutory payments and any other taxable income.

Net Pay – This is what nanny takes home in her pocket.

Tax – Deducted based on nanny’s tax code which determines nanny’s tax free allowance and then any earnings above the tax free allowance is deducted at 20%.

NI – National Insurance. There are 3 types of NI for PAYE.

Employees NI deducted from nanny’s gross wage at 12% on earnings above £166.00 per week.

Employer’s NI on top of nanny’s gross wage paid at 13.8% on earnings above £166.00 per week.

Class 1A NICS, this is a yearly payment for any benefits in kind nanny may have had for the previous tax year.

SMP – statutory maternity pay. Nanny is entitled to 39 paid weeks of leave providing she meets the criteria. Nanny is allowed a further 13 weeks unpaid

SPP – statutory paternity pay. Nanny entitled to 2 weeks of statutory pay.

SSP – statutory sick pay. Nanny will get SSP after 4 consecutive working days of sickness

P60 – Nanny will be given this form at the end of the tax year to show her annual pay, tax, NI and statutory payments, she then keeps this for her own records.

P45 – When nanny leaves your employment, a P45 will be issued with her leaving date, tax code, if a student loan has been deducted and total gross and tax to date in that tax year, she then gives this form to her next employer.

Points to consider before signing a contract with your employee

Once you have decided to employ a nanny, and give them an offer letter, it is advisable to

include the key terms and conditions of the role, such as:

Job title,

Job description,

Days/hours of work,

Holiday entitlement,

Notice period,

Statutory payments,

Disciplinary and Grievance procedures

It is essential that all the terms and conditions of the employment are addressed in the form

of a contract of employment and this must be given to nanny to sign within 2 months of them

starting the position.

Once nanny accepts your offer of employment, you have entered into a legal arrangement,

(subject to satisfactory references) therefore the sooner a contract is drawn up between the

employer and the nanny, the better.