Do You Employ your Own Carers Privately?

Isn’t it strange how some days you can’t remember what went on the day before and yet events from decades ago are recalled as though they are playing out before your eyes at the very moment you are thinking of them?

You may wonder what that question has to do with employing carers directly rather than going through a home care provider. If I may crave your indulgence for a short time and ask you to read on you’ll see how it all fits together. If you do employ your own carers or are thinking of doing so, I’m going to tell you about a fantastic little tool that you can use for dealing with tax and national insurance.

Anyway, back to the question in the first paragraph. One such event (from decades ago) is playing out for me in my mind’s eye at this very moment as I type. I was about nine or ten, at school and doing some kind of survey. The two classmates I was working with told me I had to record the information differently from how I was doing it. I just could not accept that I couldn’t do things my way; even though they were right and I was wrong.

There are two important points that emerge from this story. First, if you want to do something you should go ahead and do it whatever the opposition (there are a string of exceptions to this like not doing things that are illegal, but I won’t go into these). Second (with the same exceptions applying), you should still continue doing what you are doing, even if what you are doing is wrong (not in the sense of being illegal), or not what others might think is the wisest move on your part.  

For many years, much of our health and social care system has been provided on a paternalistic basis. What I mean by this is that there is always someone who thinks they know what is best for us. As you may imagine from what I said above, I have always been of the view that each of us, most of the time, is best placed to know what is best for us. And even if we want to do something that’s a little risky, we should be allowed to make our own mistakes.

There was a time, and it is a time that is not so very long ago, it was almost unthinkable that you could employ your own carers, or personal assistants. But things have changed. Just because you will become an employer and have a number of duties and responsibilities imposed upon you is not an argument for not employing your own carers. Becoming an employer might be daunting but there is plenty of help available.

I know that one of the most daunting things is dealing with tax, national insurance and pensions. If you employ people, you will be responsible for ensuring that their tax and national insurance are calculated and paid.

From 2018, all employers will be responsible for offering workplace pensions for their employees. The date from which the requirement to provide a pension starts depends upon how many people you employ. For further information; look at this page.

If you employ carers, you will need to submit information to HMRC online, something that goes by the name Real Time Information or RTI. For more information on this; go to this page.

How, then, do you submit information online? There are a number of systems that are available. Most you will have to pay for. There is, however, one system that is free, very simple to use and is provided by HMRC itself. It’s called HMRC Basic PAYE Tools. You can download the software here. HMRC gets a great deal of criticism; however, they should be congratulated for this.

When I first started in business, I used this tool for about a year and a half. The only reason I stopped using it is because you can only have a maximum of fifteen people on it. You don’t have to worry about calculations as the amounts of tax and national insurance that have to be paid are calculated for you. I understand it can also be used to handle pension contributions, although I never used it for this.

Way back in the second paragraph, I asked you to keep reading as it would be worthwhile. If you try the Basic PAYE Tool I think you will agree that reading to the end was worthwhile. If you use it let me know what you think. I’ll be interested to know.

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.