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Status of your personal

assistant

If you take on a personal assistant directly, you are likely to become an employer
which means you will have certain legal responsibilities to deal with.

Whether you do actually become an employer and to what extent, will depend
on your personal assistant’s ‘status’.
If you decide to hire a personal assistant through an agency then you will
generally not have to think about any of these things as the agency will be the
employer. However there are some agencies who act as finders of personal
assistants only, in which case the information below will be relevant as you will
still need to decide the status of your personal assistant once they have been
matched with you.

For tax law purposes, there are two types of status that we need to think about.
• Employee (where a person essentially ‘serves’ their employer)
• Self-employed (where a person runs their own business on an

independent basis)
You can find more information about these in the ‘Tax status’ section of our website:

www.disabilitytaxguide.org.uk

For employment law purposes, there are three types of status we need to think about.
• Employee
• Worker

• Self-employed

You can find more information about these here:

www.gov.uk/employment-status
You must look at the status of your personal assistant separately for tax and
employment law, as they could have a different status for each.

It is important to understand that status is not a matter of choice.
It will all depend on the actual facts and circumstances of your relationship with
your personal assistant. You cannot choose a certain status because you think it
will be better or because your personal assistant wants you to.
It is really important that you understand this point because it is your responsibility
as the person taking on the personal assistant to get the status right.

page 11 Taking on a personal assistant – a basic guide • Status of your personal assistant