Up your income: Be a host family. earn up to £4250 tax free per year!

redballoon_2

I have just found this advert on my local college website. Check out your local college site and check if there are looking for host families!:beer:



Become a Host Home to our students from around the world!

Do you have a spare room?
Do you want to meet young people from Japan, China, Russia and many more countries?
Could you benefit from a tax-free income of up to £4,250 per year?

Students join Warwickshire College from around the world and most are here for the academic year but some stay for shorter periods of 6 months or just 2 weeks.
So whether you would like to trial becoming a host home or interested in having a long term lodger please contact us for more information.
We are looking for hosts in Rugby and Leamington.

Mrs_Thrify

I would be very carefull.one student may have friends!!!!would you like their boy/girl friend to stay too? dirty bathroom and washing up by the sink? A drunk comming in at 2am being sick on your carpet?

OR

It could be someone who cares

midwife_twinkie

julie_d wrote: »

I would be very carefull.one student may have friends!!!!would you like their boy/girl friend to stay too? dirty bathroom and washing up by the sink? A drunk comming in at 2am being sick on your carpet?

OR

It could be someone who cares

lol sounds like it could be one of my own kids, they are all of the things mentioned above, if a student came to live at mine they would love it!!! our house is that bad we once got burgled whilst out and when the police came round and checked house over they thought the kids bedrooms had been ransacked.....WRONG!! its always like that but we didnt let on to them HE HE HE!! thats because i was so embarrased and warned the kids not to tell them any different:rotfl: :rotfl: :rolleyes: kids/students who would have em!!

melt71

I work for a guardianship company. We look after foreign students studying full time at boarding schools in the UK. Most of our students are from Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan and we have a few Russians.

The students pay a fortune to come over to the UK to get the best education that they can, the last thing they want to do is go out on the beer all the time!! The older ones do like to visit London and stay with friends etc and don't like being told that they can't go! But we have a duty of care, so they have to be placed with an adult if their 'friends' are the same age as them. Some of them smoke (although we are really strict about them not smoking in our host family's home) and some of them are extremely wealthy back home and they treat host families like the paid help! We have to address this when it comes up and generally it is resolved quickly once we have words with them, it's simply that their culture is different.

There are 3 or 4 different ways to host students;

Long term language students are generally over 18 and here for short language courses lasting a few weeks or for the equivalent of 1 term (not necessarily the same as the school term, it cover be over the summer). They are VERY serious about their studies, don't need full time care during the day and after their evening meal they will generally go out to meet up with their friends. My friend hosts 4 Korean girls in Bournemouth and she hardly ever sees them but it pays her mortgage each month. So if you have space you could have 3 or 4 students long term make a good income from it without doing a lot!

Short term language students/exchange students. Generally Europeans coming over to the UK to get a feel for our culture and do a short language course, which again doesn't necessarily coincide with our school terms. They are usually quite young - under 14 is quite normal. The language schools usually place them in 2's but it depends on your space. If they are placed alone, they may like to join in with family activities if you have children of a similar age, it's not as lucrative to have a lone student but you can gain from the experience of hosting someone from a different culture. Although they are under 18, they are out during the day at the language school so don't usually require full time care.

Our students are at boarding school during term time and go home for long term holidays. We therefore only need short term host families for occasional weekends and half terms. If you have any independent schools near to you it may be that they organise this with local families themselves, rather than the students going through a Guardianship Agency. All of our students are under 18 but most of the ones that are coming over to the UK thesedays are doing a 2 year A level course - so they arrive here at 16. Financially we pay double what the language school generally pay but the student requires 3 meals a day and if you do have a student under 14 they will pretty much need full time care (ie you can't go out to work all day and leave them). If you cannot commit to a long term student, this is the ideal solution. To take on two 17 year olds for a week would be lucrative and you wouldn't have to do much for them except provide suitable accommodation and full board. We pay approx £216 (for each student) for 9 nights accommodation at half term.

I would never recommend being a guardian to a child as if anything goes wrong, YOU are the one that has to pick up the pieces. However, if you are a host family for a school or agency - they take the final responsibility for the student and they guarantee that you get paid.

Hope that helps,

Mel

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

A few questions if possible:

(1)Does each student need their own room?
(2)Are they out of the house every day and what times?
(3)Full board-(cereal/toast...packed lunch and cooked dinner)?
(4)Whats the minimum period of taking on a student?
(5)How do you get paid and what frequency?

Thanks and sorry for all the questions. My friend has a 3 bed house but could put the kids in the same room...would this be ok?

Thanks

PP
xx

Mrs_Thrify

Hi Penny, I have had students in the past. It is not all roses.Yes they need a breakfast,usually cereal, diffrent types of bread,a varity of spreads to put on them, little bowl of fruit and a jug of squash. Small packed lunch with a drink -all disposable as it gets thrown in the bin (they prefer to go in McDonalds). A hot dinner in the evening (turn up when they feel like it).
Washing needs to be done, some take it home, some give you loads.
Bedrooms need to be checked daily for damage (to late when they have gone home) oh and if you are out when they come home - they help themselfs in the kitchen , phone and have a play with all the buttons on the computer.
I would not do it now but my sister has 3/4 every summer. She lives in Devon. She also has a lock with key on the kitchen and sitting room door whare she has the family computer, so if there is no family at home the doors get locked. You are payed by cheque after they have gone. Sometimes with the younger students - they don't get on the plane! So with your booked in suudent means a phonecall to break the bad news and no money.

melt71

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

Hi

A few questions if possible:

(1)Does each student need their own room?
(2)Are they out of the house every day and what times?
(3)Full board-(cereal/toast...packed lunch and cooked dinner)?
(4)Whats the minimum period of taking on a student?
(5)How do you get paid and what frequency?

Thanks and sorry for all the questions. My friend has a 3 bed house but could put the kids in the same room...would this be ok?

Thanks

PP
xx

Hi PP,

I think some of the answers will depend on what type of student you are hosting but basically - they don't usually need their own room (although some students that we place may request to be placed alone, meaning not with another student in the house), I think a younger student or student of the same age would be ok sharing with your friends kids. However, if your friend has 2 young children we wouldn't place a 16 year old with them in the same room - would you have wanted to stay with 2 young children at the age of 16+ We basically try to work out the best senario for everyone, however, some of the language schools that I know don't really care about the student/host being happy - they just want to place them in a family with a bed!

All language students are out of the house during the week and some on a Sat but ours need a place to stay all week and they will usually expect to stay in for a lot of that time unless visiting friends (some of the teenager boys hardly ever leave their room, especially if they take a laptop with them!). We always advise the hosts to let the student know the rules, if you expect them home by 6pm to eat their dinner, then tell them! You can hardly be annoyed with them if they walk in at 7 but you didn't tell them to be in for 6. Same goes for any other basic rules you have; no smoking, no using the phone (our all have phone cards or mobiles to ring home anyway so we never have this as a problem).

The minimum period again depends on a student, it would be best for your friend to get in touch with a couple of language schools, local independent schools or guardianship agencies that are in or advertise in her area.

We pay directly into our host family's bank account or by cheque if they prefer. Payments are made after our student has left so that the hosts can inform us of any expenses which are added to the payment. However, if you have a long term language student it would probably be paid weekly, fortnightly or montly in arrears. I don't know anyone that would pay in advance.

Hope that helps.

What Julie said is true, it's not all roses and shouldn't be a commitment taken on lightly. It's a good way of making money if done correctly but I wouldn't advise anyone to do it with their eyes shut. I wouldn't want the intrusion in my home for example, but some of our host families love hosting particular students - they get very upset when they eventually leave school and go home or to Uni. Others do it ONLY for the money and they are the ones that we find niggles about every little detail. They can't understand why the student is so ungrateful even though they are not exactly showing much care to the student! The students are children and probably think 'why should I care if the host doesn't' and treats it like staying in a hotel. I can understand this attitude with some language school hosts as they are paid so little! but if your friend asks around, she will find one that pays more and takes more care in placing their students. Don't rush into the first one that she finds.

I would advise hosting for short periods to see how it goes before committing to a longer term student.

I would also advise host families to upgrade to wireless internet and NOT allow students on their home computer. They prefer using their own laptops anyway but a lot of them need internet access to keep in touch with family and/or for homework so we are getting to the point that we will not place students in a family without internet access - preferably wireless. They are not that careful about what they are downloading or opening and if it goes wrong, it's proving who did it (which student or even if it was the student or one of the family). It's really not worth the hassle.

chickalittle

I have "hosted" off and on for several years and have only had two students in all that time that we felt didn't fit particularly well with us. On the other hand we have had loads more whose company we have really enjoyed and learnt a little bit about their culture. I now prefer older language students on short stays of anything up to 6 weeks. That way I'm not tied up long term, I can have a break from hosting in between if I want and shorter stays makes it easier if someone is maybe not quite your cup of tea. My experience is that generally older students try and get to see other parts of the country at weekends.
When they arrive I explain our family routine/mealtimes etc and is it up to them if they want to be fed to be back for evening mealtimes. Although I will try and accommodate them if they know in advance they will be late back – I have found a slow cooker to be invaluable when hosting!

Another option, if you live near one and are interested in longer term hosting is to contact your local professional football club. They often require host families for young footballers that they take on from other parts of the country/world and their rates are usually quite a bit higher than from colleges etc.

halia

I've just contacted a local organisation re hosting of younger students on short term stays.
couple of questions however
they 'pay' only £13 a night - is this normal?
are you really expected to do a guesthouse style breakfast? round here we grab toast and tea before we head out for the day. If i'm expected to put on several types of bread and spread+ cereal + juice etc etc my costs are going to be huge!
Same with packup, a packed lunch for me or DH consists of sandwich, yogurt/muesli bar and piece of fruit. or is this too 'ordinary'?

Washing - I would actually expect a 14 yr old to be able to load a washing machine themselves. I guess if I'm being paid more than £13 I'll do that type of thing for them but £13 just covers extra food+heat and light and maybe a fiver left over.

Is this just too much hassle for minimal amounts of cash, (and yes i do like the idea of having kids to stay as well but I'm wondering if I'll end up feeling exploited)

melt71

halia wrote: »

I've just contacted a local organisation re hosting of younger students on short term stays.
couple of questions however
they 'pay' only £13 a night - is this normal?
are you really expected to do a guesthouse style breakfast? round here we grab toast and tea before we head out for the day. If i'm expected to put on several types of bread and spread+ cereal + juice etc etc my costs are going to be huge!
Same with packup, a packed lunch for me or DH consists of sandwich, yogurt/muesli bar and piece of fruit. or is this too 'ordinary'?

Washing - I would actually expect a 14 yr old to be able to load a washing machine themselves. I guess if I'm being paid more than £13 I'll do that type of thing for them but £13 just covers extra food+heat and light and maybe a fiver left over.

Is this just too much hassle for minimal amounts of cash, (and yes i do like the idea of having kids to stay as well but I'm wondering if I'll end up feeling exploited)

NO THIS IS NOT NORMAL!! They are ripping people off and sound like the bottom of the market. If you are expected to provide 3 meals a day, a bed and washing I doubt £13 would even cover your expenses!

Try another couple of language schools or your local colleges / independent schools to see if they need host families. You should expect £13+ just for bed, basic breakfast & evening meal - not lunch as well. For full board you should expect at least £20 (we currently pay £24 and this is going up to £27 in Sept 08, some of our more expensive competitors pay £30+ per night).

Obviously it depends where you are based - if there is a large need for hosts in the area then companies will pay more, if you're in the sticks with not many students nearby then they can get away with paying very little.

mel19632

Hi Melt71

W have had students to stay in the past and we were only paid £12 at the time, which we thought was reasonable!!

We live in Surrey (near Chertsey/Staines) - do you have any suggestions of anyway we could contact for a better rate of pay/ any places that may be looking for host families?

Thanks in advance