umbrella company for freelancing via agency

[whatdoesittake48]

I have a meeting with a recruitment agency this week to discuss me taking on copywriting roles with them. To this point I have been a sole trader but understand that it isn't possible for agency work.
The agent suggested an umbrella company or becoming a limited company. The latter may happen at some stage but in the meantime the umbrella company will probably be my option.
Can anyone give me an idea of how much they cost and what it really means in terms of my taxation and legal liabilities.
It seems a little confusing. ..

I can't help with the umbrella company but I faced the same issue myself last year. I decided to go the limited company route. The umbrella company will take a cut and the limited company was so easy to set up and is actually more cost efficient tax-wise. How much work do you do as a sole trader? I'm a technical writer and did about £25k in my last financial year before I switched. Are you sure that it isn't worth your while becoming a limited company? It also gives you more protection as an individual.

Thank you for your reply.
My average income had been about 15000 but I wasn't working full time. I feel I have been under selling myself and so the help of an agency will be great. Now my kids are older I can take on more challenging and time consuming roles.
I expect to increase my income to about 35k assuming I am working full time.
I guess my main concern is that I won't enjoy the agency work and that the tax implications of being limited will be too complicated for me.
I also need a quick solution as I want to start asap as we are very broke at the moment and my freelance work from home has slowed down.
I see the umbels colony as a solution while I get used to a new way of working.

Umbels colony? Umbrella company of course!

Bump. V interested if anyone knows more?

Avoid the umbrella company route - my agency have pushed me into it and they've really screwed up my tax and made me pay for the privilege (between Parasol and Paystream). Go limited. I'm having to change jobs so I can get out and do that.

When I was comparing whether to use an umbrella company or set up a ltd it was suggested that you needed to be earning over 28k a year to make the set up/accountancy costs of a ltd worthwhile. Otherwise it tends to be cheaper and more straightforward to use an umbrella company.