Do you employ an assistant?

[Chatterbox Childcare]

If so please can you give me some advice?

I am going to have 5 or 6 under 5's most of the week and Ofsted have changed my certificate to say that with an assistant I can have this BUT I don't know anything about what the IR or any other department requires of us.

Does anyone else employ and give me some guidance as to what I have to do as I only have 2 weeks to sort it all and get my head around wages.

Thanks

[sarah707]

I would think that it would be much simpler if your assistant was self employed and paid her own tax and NI.

Hth :D

[Stillgoingstrong]

I would think that it would be much simpler if your assistant was self employed and paid her own tax and NI.

Hth :D

If they work over 16 hours I think it is then they have to be employed by you.
I have an assistant but as she is my daughter who lives with me I pay her for 15 hours then I dont charge her for board & lodging and I also bought her a car and I make the repayments on that. Worked out better for us but not much help to you I'm afraid:D

[rickysmiths]

I looked into this in detail last year. If the assistant works more than 15hrs you have to pay them the min wage and do tax and NI and produce a proper PAYE payroll. My accountant would have done this for me and produced a detailed payslip for the assistant.

You also have to give them 25 days paid holiday a year and paid sickness.

Also you need a backup plan for when they are off sick or on holiday.

I must say I decided it wasn't worth the hassle and didn't go ahead with it.

[Pauline]

It is worth using the Employment Status Indicator to work out whether your assistant is self-employed:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/esi.htm

The rules are very complex on self employment and employed. It has a lot to do with how much risk the person has within the business. :)

[Lick'le Oakes]

I understand it to be if your assistant is claiming tax credit for herself and her childcare she needs to work 16 hours. If she works 16 hours she needs to be employed. If shes employed you need to pay at least minimum wage (this is fine if she is claiming tax credit as they will make it up anyway) which is £5.80 per hour. Sick pay has to be paid from the fourth day of incapacity, holidays are 5.6 weeks/28 days and these can include bank holidays, (she has agreed to take her holidays when I take mine, in the school holidays), her tax and NI contributions will come out her wage and as far as I can work out but i am still waiting for confirmation if your employee only earns the minimum earnings threshold (thats why you pay mimimum wage) then you don't have to pay any contributions as for tax I don't know yet. I am starting to employ my assistant as from 1st September, she has had her CRB, first aid trained, Ofsted have approved her so hopefully she will be a huge benefit for me, not necessary to have more children but another adult, (adult conversation in the day time :clapping: )another pair of eyes and hands for me makes it worth while paying her.

[christine e]

I don't know much about this at all but something to consider would assistants be entitled to redundancy payment?

Cx

[bekki0405]

I'm not sure how having an assistant can be beneficial financially? If you're paying minimum wage, and then paying tax, NI etc, for an extra 2 children maximum, it must just even out.
It's not something I would personally want to do. I have enough paperwork with the children I have!
I also wonder how parents view this. Most of my parents come to me because I offer a home from home service. Having more children would mean I would be more like a private nursery.
One other thing I would worry about, which someone has already mentioned, is sickness of the assistant. If they wake up in the morning and they are poorly and can't work, how do you decide which children not to have? I'm not sure you would find a back up at that short notice.
THere's a lot to think about isn't there????!!!:(

[Lick'le Oakes]

For me personally it will just even out, it's not about the money it's about being able to do more, have more fun etc, have time to be on top of paperwork etc, my husband is registered as my assistant now so will have a back up if i need it, as for redundancy I really don't know yet I am waiting for my pack to come from HMRC, I do Brownies as well so the idea of having a hour here and there if two children are asleep and she will play with the other two I will be able to do some extra bits for that. I know it's not for everyone and moneywise it might not be worth while but it's not all about money. As for the parents I have asked them all, they have to give writtern permission and they are all ok about it, as i said four hands are better than two

[Pauline]

One other thing I would worry about, which someone has already mentioned, is sickness of the assistant. If they wake up in the morning and they are poorly and can't work, how do you decide which children not to have? I'm not sure you would find a back up at that short notice.
THere's a lot to think about isn't there????!!!:(

Yes there is a lot to think about!

We had to write into our policies what we would do in the event of the assistant being ill, how we would decide who would be cancelled and which parents we would contact (and why) to collect children if the assistant became ill during working hours.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Thanks Pauline I used the calculator but it was very "iffy" due to our trade not being mentioned and in the end the answer was "should be employed"

How can they send someone in their place?

I am going to talk to the IR tomorrow and will feed back

[TheBTeam]

My friend has just looked into this and is having to employ her assistant even if she will be working less than 16 hours, something to do with the assistant not being able to choose when she works etc, my friend is telling her when she is needed.

[joshie]

My assistant is self employed, we are a partnership though. Her accountant has assured us that it is fine for her to be self employed.

[pillows]

HI DEBBIE I TOO HAVE JUST TAKEN ON AN ASSISTANT AND CANT TELL YOU HOW MANY SLEEPLESS NIGHTS I HAVE HAD WONDERING IF I AM DOING THE RIGHT THING DUE TO THE FACT I HAVE TO EMPLOY HER .(ALTHOUGH SHE WANTED TO REMAIN SELF EMPLOYED) BUT UNFORTUNATELY WE ARE RESPONSPONSIBLE
THE GUIDELINES ARE : HERE GOES
1) you have to register as an employer if ----- we are paying them more than £97 per week or £421 per month
you can only register when you know their first wage is going to hit this thresh hold ( so if you know like i did two weeks before i gave them their start date

you can register on the phone took me about 10 mins they then forward you an employers pack which is so good and they send you a cd rom to upload to computer and that goes through the PAYE step by step ( so easy) you get them to fill out a p46 if they dont have a p45 and along with all their personal info including NI number it generates their tax code .yey!!!

you then input thier wages into computer and it tells you what they have to pay in tax and NI contributions along with our employers NI contributions .

the only thing the programme doesnt do for you is issue you a pay slip lol but you can pick them up from any good stationers

you can also apply for an online pass word so we can send our chart info straight to them ... i am just waiting for this to come through as i only put the programme on computer on tuesday night . and i wish i had done it a week ago (i might not have had so many sleepless nights worrying about how i was goping to cope )lol
please feel free to pm me if you need and further questions answered and sorry for such a long reply .
good luck