assistants hours

[little daisies]

ive read somewhere that if you use an assistant for more than 15 hours a week they have to be employed and get paid holidays etc. my assistant is self employed and works with me 30 - 40 hours a week, i don`t pay for her holidays as she is self employed. am i wrong in not actually employing her or is it fine her being self employed

[Stillgoingstrong]

The thing is your assistant is working for you, not herself, so is not self employed. sorry!!!!!

[rickysmiths]

ive read somewhere that if you use an assistant for more than 15 hours a week they have to be employed and get paid holidays etc. my assistant is self employed and works with me 30 - 40 hours a week, i don`t pay for her holidays as she is self employed. am i wrong in not actually employing her or is it fine her being self employed

The Tax Office consider that if they work more than 15hrs with you that you are acctually their employer and they cannot be self employed. So for 30-40 hours yes you should be paying tax, ni, min wage, paid sick, paid holidays the govenment min is I think 25 days including Bank Holidays. You also have to produce a proper pay slip and P60. An accountant would do the payroll bit for you for a small fee, I was quoted £30 per month and of course this is tax deductable.

I looked into this in detail last year and to be honest I couldn't have more than 6 children under five without applying for planning permission, a lengthy and costly process. If I took on more in the older age group I couldn't have more than 12 at one time because this is what the insurance restricts you to.
What happens if you increase the numbers and then you or the assiatant are ill? One can't have all the children on their own, if the assistant is off you still have to pay them.

I feel, when you start to look at these numbers you are moving away from the essence of what Childminding is about and putting earnings first.

I didn't want to loose a child last year, but decided I would be worse off employing an assistant than keeping to my own numbers. At the time I had 4 under fives full time and 2 before and after schoolers and I earned more in the year than my Primary school teacher husband so I was happy.

My husband is registered as my assistant but purely to help occassionally. He may pop a child home or stay with one while I pop to collect one from an after school club and help on longer more ambitious outtings in the holidays. He does his First Aid and Safeguarding Training every three years. Plus I don't pay him!!!

[little daisies]

my partners registered also but want an assistant to help out to as we have a lot of animals and he tends to them also so it would make it easier for him. so back up when one of us is ill isnt a problem as we will be covered. sounds like if i want an assistant full time its better for me to have 2 and get them to work around each other, the one that starts today goes back to college in september for 3 days a week anyway so may need to get someone probly my mum as she helps out now and again anyway to cover the 3 days if needed. have to carefully think about it. somehow weve managed to commit ourselves to 6 different schools and a nursery and depending on traffic its hard going, luckly they dont all finish at the same time

[rickysmiths]

my partners registered also but want an assistant to help out to as we have a lot of animals and he tends to them also so it would make it easier for him. so back up when one of us is ill isnt a problem as we will be covered. sounds like if i want an assistant full time its better for me to have 2 and get them to work around each other, the one that starts today goes back to college in september for 3 days a week anyway so may need to get someone probly my mum as she helps out now and again anyway to cover the 3 days if needed. have to carefully think about it. somehow weve managed to commit ourselves to 6 different schools and a nursery and depending on traffic its hard going, luckly they dont all finish at the same time

Golly, rather you than me.

[TheBTeam]

my partners registered also but want an assistant to help out to as we have a lot of animals and he tends to them also so it would make it easier for him. so back up when one of us is ill isnt a problem as we will be covered. sounds like if i want an assistant full time its better for me to have 2 and get them to work around each other, the one that starts today goes back to college in september for 3 days a week anyway so may need to get someone probly my mum as she helps out now and again anyway to cover the 3 days if needed. have to carefully think about it. somehow weve managed to commit ourselves to 6 different schools and a nursery and depending on traffic its hard going, luckly they dont all finish at the same time

Would it not be easier if someone looked after the animals and then you are not needing to employ them as they are nothing to do with the childminding business?