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Section: Being Well
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Toby Laping
Ph. D., C.S.W.,
Private Care Manager
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Employment Arrangements for Aides
By Toby Laping, Ph. D., C.S.W.,
Private Care Manager
One of the questions that people in my office are often asked is whether we know aides who help older people with personal care and housekeeping, and who will work privately, “under the table”, which means without the employer paying taxes and with no deductions from the employee’s checks. This, then, refers to unreported income. There are any number of networks of people who work in private homes as aides, and their hourly rate is quite reasonable because there are no (obvious) additional costs to them or their employees. Some of the people we’ve come across who do this work are wonderful and I understand why families want to hire them.
At the same time, we’ve become increasingly concerned about these arrangements since it seems to us that both employer and employee are taking risks that neither can afford and that can be very costly indeed. We’ve seen too many examples of this lately. In the home care business, back injuries are very common since it’s often necessary to lift a person who cannot get up by herself. If the aide injures her back, there’s no Workmen’s Compensation to depend upon. If the employer decides that there’s a personality clash or that the aide isn’t someone wanted around the house any longer and fires the aide, there’s no Unemployment Insurance to support the aide until she finds another job.
We’ve seen aides working “under the table” who were injured and applied for Workmen’s Compensation. We’ve seen fired aides apply for Unemployment Insurance. Those are not pleasant scenarios because the authorities are put on notice that an illegal employment situation occurred. If the aide was receiving entitlements, those are called into question. If the employer wasn’t paying taxes, that is red flagged. If a disgruntled employee calls the State Insurance Department and sets a process of claims in motion, the employer may be in trouble.
There are understandable reasons why people hire privately rather than going through a health care agency or a companion service. People who are hired privately by families are allowed to do whatever the employer and employee agree is a suitable job assignment. There’s no oversight by the Department of Health and no limitations based on specific job categories. That can be very helpful. The employee that a family has come to know and trust can also take care of giving medications, of driving the patient to the doctor, of listening to the medical recommendations and reporting back to family, of applying salves or other medications as needed, etc. On the other hand, if the employee gets sick, there’s no backup. If there’s a possibility of income tax deduction as a health care expense, that’s probably not available. If a disgruntled employee calls the State Insurance Department, you’ve no recourse. It’s worth the extra time and money to make those private arrangements professional, formal, and legal.
If you choose to hire your own aide, you would be well served to get the employee’s social security number and then contact a payroll service, your attorney, and your insurance agent. Alternatively, you can consider having an agency take the person on as their employee but working for you. However you handle this, protect yourself and your potential employee.
www.wnycaremanager.com
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