Umbrella company help

[hotcrossbun99]

Can anyone please recommend an umbrella company, I have joined an agency and need to join an umbrella company for my wages but Ive no idea where to start?
Thanks in advance.

I used a company called danbro. They were fine. It was about 3 years ago tho.

Thanks Greenwoodlane 🙂

I'm using one called Churchill Knight at the moment. They have very low fees and are reasonably efficient so all good.

Try googling umbrella company and the name of your industry in case there are specialists for supply teaching, construction, or whatever industry you are in.

However, it is always good to be aware of the pitfalls of being forced into using the umbrella system:

www.theguardian.com/money/2016/oct/21/temporary-workers-umbrella-companies-extra-costs-dodging-ni-cutting-rights-supply-teachers

I don't know if it's still the case, but DP has had to use them to work in construction in the past and the way it was would be that he would get a machine driver job for say, £15 ph but when he was paid through the umbrella company, they would charge him their fee and both employee and employers NIC, then pay him NMW and a bewildering array of expenses and bonuses which made his pay up to almost what it should have been, but obviously with a nice chunk of profit thrown in for the umbrella company.

If you are in construction, see if you can join the construction industry scheme instead. Don't fall for the crap about not having to do a tax return as being a benefit - tax returns are a piece of piss and well worth it to keep a lot more of the money you earn and not participate in tax avoidance, which could bite you in the arse in future.

I work for a construction industry main contractor and as far as I am concerned Umbrella companies are a scam designed for tax/NI avoidance.

Our true sub-contractors we pay in line with the Construction Industry Scheme and for 1 man band sole traders the self assessment is simple and easy.

I could not have misunderstood this thread title more if I tried - as I was going to recommend this lot:

www.james-smith.co.uk/

I used the imaginatively named umbrella.co.uk when I needed to confirm arrangements in a hurry. They did the job.

@StCharlotte Same!

As an aside, jackparlabane - love your user name, brilliant books.

Thanks everyone. It's a nursing agency that I've joined and it's looking like the advice is to avoid umbrella companies and just go with PAYE. xx

If PAYE is an option, it's probably better to take that.

They might offer you a higher hourly rate on umbrella but if you have to pay employer's NI and a fee to the umbrella company out of that, you probably won't be any better off, especially if they bugger about with separating out mileage and subsistence as expenses (I don't know if they still do this, it's a couple of years since DP did work through agencies and I know that the tax office is cracking down on this sort of stuff).

But it meant he had to submit an expenses form each week and you missed out on a good chunk of pay if you couldn't provide receipts for lunches, which DP often couldn't because he usually took leftovers for lunch.

Obviously if the umbrella company is involved there is their profit to make, which is at the expense of the taxman and the employee. We were uncomfortable with effectively being forced into tax avoidance to try and keep the take home pay at the level that it should be and as the tax office is cracking down on this sort of thing, they can claw back unpaid tax retrospectively and I don't see the umbrella companies putting their hands in their pockets.

If you are using a compliant umbrella company, there is no tax avoidance. It is a legal and reliable payroll option for temporary workers in a variety of scenarios, i.e. public sector work, not able to go PAYE or set up their own limited company, etc.

In response to whether you may be better off after Employers NI/umbrella company margin (usually a small weekly amount) is deducted, this depends on your personal circumstances. However, your agency should be providing you with an uplift in your rate to cover these deductions. Every compliant umbrella company will be transparent about this and will give you all the details you need in a personalised take home pay calculation based on your contract details.

It is common practice for recruitment agencies not to have their temporary workers or contractors on their own books, as it creates an additional administrative burden. Depending on your agency, you may not have a choice but to go umbrella as the agency may not enable temporary workers to go PAYE through them at all.

The umbrella company acts as the fee-payer, making all the relevant deductions that are required from the worker, once they are paid by your agency. The umbrella company will then pay your net salary into your personal bank account. There are dodgy umbrella companies out there such as offshore schemes, however if you do your research and choose a compliant and reliable solution, you will see that going umbrella is a perfectly viable alternative to PAYE.

@BarbaraofSevillle
An excellent article and some interesting insights.

I did 9 months contracting via an umbrella company a couple of years ago and I think I’ve only now absorbed the full financial implications. I was getting an uplift tho. But it now truly makes the basic pay look shit.

As well. Now I know.