Member

My final amendment in this group would remove another exclusion from the employment allowance. This affects the employment of people in connection with personal, family or household affairs. There is an exception for some kinds of illness or disability but the employment allowance is denied for other household support staff. I should declare an interest: as an employer of a part-time housekeeper, the Bill will cost me over £1,000 a year. However, I suspect that many employers of domestic help are not even registered as employers with HMRC. The Minister will be aware that domestic help is very often part of the cash economy and that many would have been untroubled when the secondary threshold was high enough to rule out being caught up in any involvement with the national insurance system, but this Bill will bring many more employers of domestic help into the secondary contribution net.