How much would it cost to have a full time groom to look after horses at home?

I guess around £500 a week (based on £10 an hour for eight hours a day, working six days a week). Plus whatever NI contributions you’d have to make.
 
Haha123 said:
No accommodation
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Then you would need to pay at least minimum wage and calculate how many hours per day you actually need the groom to be working.

The majority of full time groom jobs are offered with accommodation and bills because it seems to be a way of reducing salary costs. I'm not quite sure on the legalities of this, although I worked in several such jobs myself when I was in my early 20s.
 
+ insurance although I think anyone trying to employ someone on those terms would find it quite difficult to fill the position. I employed a neighbour for nearly 20 years to do do two hours a day for me with extra hours and holiday cover as required. I always paid her considerably more than the sum quoted and she had no travel costs as she lived within walking distance. She was also very unusual in that she rarely went out except to shop and never took holidays. I was incredibly lucky to find her, someone like her are as rare as hen's teeth!
 
I suppose you’d need several horses to make the expense worth your while, too. Three ridden, plus their attendant needs - mucking out, general yard work, field clearing etc.

From your posts it seems you have one only, at livery.
 
I’m currently helping look after some private horses.
The owners do early am (I’d rather do this but onwards)
I do 10-2, so they turnout and I come in and muck out, bring in, ride/exercise and feed then they do evening feed/skip out and hay. I get £187 as a self employed groom.
Id prefer they didn’t bother with the morning visit or just went and fed then I’d do my bit earlier and turnout for them to just bring in but they like their routine!
 
A yard near me is looking for a groom Monday to Friday 0800-1630. They are offering up to 26,000 are struggling to fill the post.
 
If you are looking for 4 hours/day with no accommodation then you are unlikely to find anyone good in an employee capacity. You are talking freelancer, rates around £15/hour
 
Birker2020 said:
It is still legal to pay cash in hand which might reduce your outgoings somewhat.
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Thats an odd statement. This isn’t really about cash - it’s about terms of employment.

It comes down to whether the groom will be an employee or self employed. The former employer takes on the tax liability, the latter the groom takes it on.

It’s fine to pay in cash either way. Provided HMRC still get their slice
 
Annagain said:
It's entirely legal to pay cash in hand. It's not legal to use that to evade your responsibilities as an employer, which, I assume, is what you're hinting at.
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I know lots of people that are paid cash in hand. If both parties are in agreement there is no issue as far as I am concerned. Horses are one industry when you see CIH a lot.
 
flying_high said:
It is not legal to pay less cash in hand, than you pay through electronic means, that would be tax evasion and illegal.
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I haven't gone in it in great detail tbh. It was just a quick google search. Partner paid cash in hand but he's asked the question and been told he doesn't need to declare it because its under so many hours a week.

He only does three days a week anyway.
 
ihatework said:
Thats an odd statement. This isn’t really about cash - it’s about terms of employment.

It comes down to whether the groom will be an employee or self employed. The former employer takes on the tax liability, the latter the groom takes it on.

It’s fine to pay in cash either way. Provided HMRC still get their slice
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I probably didn't phrase that right... what I meant is that you can probably pay a lower rate cash in hand than you would if you were deducting NI & tax.

I don't know as I've never done it. But if I was working casually a few hours here and a few hours there mucking out stables I wouldn't expect to have a contract.
 
Birker2020 said:
I probably didn't phrase that right... what I meant is that you can probably pay a lower rate cash in hand than you would if you were deducting NI & tax.
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Any self respecting freelancer increases their prices to account for that - they still have to pay their taxes! And if they are underhand enough not to, would you trust them with your horses?
 
ihatework said:
Any self respecting freelancer increases their prices to account for that - they still have to pay their taxes! And if they are underhand enough not to, would you trust them with your horses?
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Oh for goodness sake I'm not here to argue.

I'm just giving my view point based on what I know about the yards I've been on. Current yard has structured pay slips, NI and tax, etc but a lot just take on people on an adhoc cash in hand basis and there's nothing wrong with that if it suits both parties.

All I was saying was that it wasn't illegal. Its nothing about being underhand...honestly you would argue with yourself ;)
 
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