41% UK households employ help !

[Frederick]

Wow !....  Are we that rich......I cant believe so many families employee people to clean for them . Below taken from a home security site .

Legal & General Warns About Allowing Staff Into Homes
Allowing home help such as cleaners, gardeners and odd job men, into your house can pose a significant risk to security, a home insurance company has warned.

Legal & General's survey of UK spending habits found that among the 41 per cent UK households which employ help, some 17 per cent use a cleaner.

Meanwhile, seven per cent pay someone to help with their ironing, while 17 per cent delegate their gardening to a professional.

The potential security risk of this arises when these employees are given keys allowing them access to homes, according to Ruth Wilkins, head of communications at Legal & General's general insurance business.

She said: "Having people in our home to help with the household chores may mean a higher security risk. For example, extra keys may need to be cut to allow a cleaner or gardener entry when nobody else is around.

"So it's a good idea to do a few checks on anyone that we let into our homes, particularly those who we are going to trust with a set of house keys."

[woolybanana]

Why is anyone surprised? Working families need help about the place and students plus illegal immigrants particularly need work, and criminals have a right to recycle your stuff. This must be the case or many would not be there or be allowed to be there! So, next time you are robbed by the lovely, illegal, little maid paid on the black, blame the government who are unable or unwilling to control immigration.

Then there are the Brits who steal because, well, frankly, the benefits do not cover enough these days and you can only breed so fast!

Thank Bobo that the problem here is only a seasonal one![6]

[Quillan]

I have to say we had a 'lady that does (or in our case did)' twice, sometimes three times a week when we lived in the UK. She also used to take our ironing, charged by the load. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that, we both worked very hard and earned good money. When you work that hard you don't want to spend your weekends cleaning, washing and ironing nor do you want to spend half of it in a supermarket. The thing is of course is to make sure the people had good, verifiable, references and pay them a decent wage, we even gave ours holiday pay. Smashing lady and never a problem.

[Frederick]

   Wooly    Its the percentage of those who employee others that threw me ....The  only  person I know that has a cleaner and gardener living near me in Dorset is 88  lives alone needs and can afford them ...I am not seeing cleaners .gardeners . and shirt  ironers constantly coming and going in my area ...

[woolybanana]

In another life, when I was in West London, every flat had one. They were all illegal. Some were superb, as per Quillans statement, others not so. One of ours cleaned out the valuables in the flat.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Frederick"]   Wooly    Its the percentage of those who employee others that threw me ....The  only  person I know that has a cleaner and gardener living near me in Dorset is 88  lives alone needs and can afford them ...I am not seeing cleaners .gardeners . and shirt  ironers constantly coming and going in my area ...[/quote]

That may be true but then the original post talks about the UK.

We have a lady come in every day during high season to clean the rooms. Our computer system tells her which rooms to clean and what type of cleaning she needs to do (changeover, 3 night clean or daily clean with guest in residence) and we use the Cheque Employ system for this. Quite often young French couples get family members to help out (like our next door neighbour has her mother in during the week). I suspect that 'young professionals" in large towns and cities in France perhaps to have help. I am not sure how you get on in France if you are elderly and can't cope yourself.

[woolybanana]

Fredo, the language schools round Bmth used to have dozens of ads on their boards for cleaners in the area. Not surprising really, but when a couple are working, they can often afford a cleaner unless they make the sacrifice to give their kids a decent education and pay fees.

[Russethouse]

 I've had a cleaner (though I don't now) and sometimes have the ironing done, my mother has a cleaner (at 89 and with mobility problems) and my sister has 'The Maids' or other contract cleaners every couple of weeks (she is self employed ).

My neighbour (with mobility problems) also has something like The Maids, on the other hand the other neighbour  has been a cleaner/ ironer because she could fit it around the children.........

[Mme poivre]

my daughter needed to bororw some money and i dont believe in just giving it to her so she has been speningd two to three hours a week cleaning my house in return, that way we both benefit. she earns the money she needs and i get to help her out.

[woolybanana]

But what was the butler doing  all the time Mme Poivre[:P]

[tegwini]

I had a cleaner, a local lady from my village, ages ago - necessary at the time - or so  it seemed.    I spent ages tidying up and putting things away so she could clean without my stuff getting in the way  -   and she would fail to arrive!!   And,  she was really well paid.

We discovered later that her husband was on benefits - 'invalidity' still is,  over 15 years later,  although he has extended his house and gardens too, and had fathered 2 more children.  Clearly easier to be on benefits than work.

Tegwini

[Mme poivre]

Keeping me entertained of course woolly

[SonandAl]

We are registered to work in France under the Service ὰ la Personne scheme, to do jobs around the home that include cleaning. This process included agreeing to be full vetted by the authorities and took some 3 months.  This is another reason why people should only be employing people who are registered.