Money Matters
Among all your pre-christmas planning, one dilemma gets more difficult by the year. Should you tip the people who empty your bins, deliver your post or in any other way provide a regular doorstep service?
It used to be commonplace to give milkmen, postmen, dustmen and the paperboy/girl a tip at Christmas and many still do – typically £5 or £10 – or a box of biscuits or bottle of beer as appropriate.
But times have changed from the days when we knew these people certainly by sight and probably by name. Few of us have a regular postie who arrives at set times and we probably do not have milk or newspapers delivered at all. But then we do now have recycling collectors who call each week.
A few years ago, Royal Mail warned postal workers not to accept cash or gifts worth more than £30 from any one customer in case they fell foul of the Bribery Act. Surprisingly this was an issue even 122 years ago: in December 1897, the Postmaster General said that a postman’s pay was sufficient and he would like to see Christmas boxes banned if it were not so difficult to make this happen. Today many councils tell their refuse collectors not to accept tips or gifts. Recycling collectors are probably
outsourced by the local council and need not be tipped.
A minority of households do still tip, with older people more likely to maintain the Christmas-box tradition. Newspaper boys and girls are most likely still to receive tips – and they hang on to their jobs to get it.
Then there are the people you employ round your house – cleaners, window cleaners and gardeners. You might pay them an extra week’s wages at Christmas but think of it as a bonus rather than a tip. You almost certainly pay them in cash and this is quite legal. The onus is on them to declare their earnings, however small, to HMRC – though the taxman is well aware that many who are paid in cash do not.
A couple of years ago, a governmentcommissioned review into modern work practices and the gig economy suggested that, by paying in cash, we employers make it easier for people to avoid their tax responsibilities. But it is difficult to ask someone who regularly comes into your house, whom you know and trust, whether they are honest with the taxman.
The report concluded that technology should be developed to enable everyone to pay their home helps, even babysitters, without cash. This would also create an audit trail of payments made, and tax could be taken at the same time. It could raise £6 billion a year, the amount of tax reckoned to be unpaid on cash-inhand payments.
It could also be a way of checking that workers receive the national living wage, which is currently £8.21 an hour for people over 25 and includes anyone you employ at home, apart from au pairs.
So, while deciding whether to tip this Christmas, remember your workers’ rights and make sure you are paying your home helps at least the legal minimum wage. That is an onus on you.