My 17 year old daughter works as an apprentice and is paid £120 per week. Her wage is paid into her bank at some point on a Friday by her boss by way of a bank transfer. This may be from the business account or may be from her boss’ personal account. I don’t know and my daughter doesn’t care. As long as she gets her cash, why should she?
My real worry however is she has not had a wage slip. Not one. She’s been working there for 6 months
Her wages isn’t enough to attract tax and NIC deductions.
Should I be concerned? Are there any negative consequences for her in the future if she’s not getting a wage slip?

She will be unable to prove income for any bank stuff, unable to prove how much she earned, unable to prove that she does not need to pay any tax etc. Has she filled out all the right tax forms?
Possibly go along with her and ask that they do a payslip to date and then start doing them from there.

I would expect her to still be on the payroll system and therefore getting payslips and most critically end of year stuff (p14,p60). If she had a second job she would need this info plus as noted above. You sure she’s below the nic threshold? that’s pretty low.

If she’s an apprentice then she should be down on the payroll as such. I’d be surprised if her wages aren’t being processed by PAYE RTI as it’s a legal requirement now and being an apprentice the minimum wage is lower so it’s worth the company jumping through the legal hoops to take advantage of that. I’m guessing a company this size is outsourcing the payroll to their accountants so they should be generating all the payslips.

She just needs to ask for them – it’s a perfectly reasonable request!

£120/week is below the NIC/tax threshold. (I’m not an accountant but we do employ apprentices!)

Is it not a legal requirement to supply a wage slip?

Thanks for the replies. She’s in the music industry. Artist management, tour booking, show riders, after show events…that kind of thing. She loves it.
The whole scene appears to be ‘cash in hand’ although it’s a certified diploma apprenticeship. Her tutor who she sees on a monthly basis appeared to show some concern at the lack of payslip on his last visit but nothing appears to have been done.
I get the feeling that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that rocking the boat could see her no longer an apprentice.
Should she register as self employed and declare her earnings that way?

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that rocking the boat could see her no longer an apprentice.
Should she register as self employed and declare her earnings that way?

She is not self employed, I’d expect an accountant to be able to confirm that but it could be that it’s all going under the counter here. Asking for payslips isn’t rocking the boat, usually you can say things like I’m looking for a flat share and I need them or I need to show somebody it etc.

Is it not a legal requirement to supply a wage slip?

Yes it is.

Possibly go along with her ….

Whatever you do, please don’t do that!

Again, thanks for the input. I’m really grateful.
She’s been present where 20k or more in cash is being passed between her boss and ‘the artist’ and this is by no means unusual. These are well known, household name celebrity’s. The whole thing seems to operate on a cash in hand basis. She’s even had to text her boss late on Friday evening to remind him to transfer her wages in as he’s in Germany or somewhere at a gig and he’s forgot to do it.
She thinks it’s cool. Her mum and I think it’s beyond dodgy.
So, let’s say for arguments sake, she registers as self employed just to make her income legitimate and her boss keeps paying her the way he does? Any foreseeable issues with that?
I’m trying to make sure she’s not inadvertently heading toward trouble and not causing her rather erratic boss any cause to rethink her position.

So, let’s say for arguments sake, she registers as self employed just to make her income legitimate and her boss keeps paying her the way he does? Any foreseeable issues with that?

Speak to an accountant. Is there a reward for dobbing in tax dodgy businesses? Could be a handy “redundancy” payment if it all goes Pete Tong

She can’t be self-employed when she’s working predominantly for one client (i.e. her boss). Whoever is running the apprenticeship scheme should ensure that all this is sorted out, so I’d get on to her tutor or the college/organisation they work for.

let’s say for arguments sake, she registers as self employed just to make her income legitimate and her boss keeps paying her the way he does? Any foreseeable issues with that?

She cannot be an apprentice as she is self employed and she is liable for the training. TBH, and i see why you are concerned, i think you are just over worrying here. Everything is fine but for the wage slip? Its a hell of a good break and a leg into an industry where contacts are probably more important than qualifications.

She has bank receipts which show regular amounts coming into her bank from a source so it snot hard to show she is employed

Legally she should get a wage lip but does it really matter that much?

if the answer is yes then the tutor should be the person she gets to moan to the employer a they have a duty of care etc and should regularly speak with the boss /employer anyway.

Under no circumstances go self employed as it is not true and I dont understand , beyond worried parent, why you would consider it.

This happens all the time in the music industry, it does look shady from the outside but that’s just the way it is…
Punters pay with cash, promotor gets cash from venue, promotor pays artist in cash.
There is always an invoice and receipt generated.
As long as she’s working for one of the big companies then I’d not worry one bit. Its not a job I’d like. The hours and pay are crap to begin with but like anything it can lead to some great jobs that pay well.
If you’d rather my emails in my profile
HTH

The one thing that no one seems to have really pointed out, perhaps because they’re not tax experts, is that the onus is on your daughter’s employer to operate PAYE correctly and if it turns out that your daughter hadn’t been paying tax when she was meant to (and that doesn’t appear to be the case here, given her earnings) it would be up to the employer to gross up whatever she’d received and pay that tax over to HMRC.

Registering as self-employed offers no benefits, would increase your daughter’s (your) admin, would potentially undermine the employer’s obligation to settle any underpaid tax and could even have a negative bearing on her statutory rights as an employee.

Putting aside the peace of mind a payslip offers, your daughter getting paid the correct amount, at the correct time, without a payslip actually offers her the best of all worlds. Unless she’s looking to prove her earnings for a mortgage application, which I’m guessing she’s not.

I taken on a apprentice and when I spoke to HMRC about how I meant to record wage payment etc they couldn’t give a monkeys, basically said he below the threshold and no need to do anything!
Even when I said he might be doing more hours, they still said don’t worry!

But even so I downloaded and use the HMRC Basic PAYE tools software, just to be all above board and cover my ass, it also does a v basic payslip.

I don’t print the payslips anymore, as the first few are still in the workshop where he put them! Thou I am shame to say he did text me once as I forgot to pay him! 😳 I was away supporting a cycle ride and completely forgot, thanks god for internet banking!

But I do feel if she like to have payslips she should get them.

Sounds like her boss is probably just a bit crap & see’s sorting her payslip as a low priority on their list of things to do.
They may just need a reminder that it needs sorting out. Once she’s on the payroll it should all be pretty straight forward after.
Has she even got a contract of employment?
Imo both the above are important as if for any reason things turn sour then she needs to know where she stands re holiday pay etc.
Speaking from experience, when i was a youngster i was in the same position, thought as long as i was paid on time things were ok.
Until when i went to leave & they stitched me up with my holiday pay, stating that i was ‘casual labour’..

Thanks everybody. Much appreciated. I’ll drop you a line if I may Bigshep?

Yep should be worried, But also she should be getting Tooling allowance and clothing
or what ever she needs to do her job.
Plus the owner of the company would benefit from declaring the Apprentice.

“Tooling allowance and clothing” ?
What’s that?

“Tooling allowance and clothing” Is (was?) an ‘allowance’ to offset the cost of spanners/scissors/overalls etc when starting work in an apprenticeship scheme