Good afternoon,
I hope I’m posting in the right place, apologies if I’m not.
I have a few questions of if anyone has worked with ADR Agency.
My Partner is currently just signed on to work with ADR Agency & you have to have a separate company that pay your taxes and pay yourself etc.
There are 2 companies that are linked with ADR to pay you & pay our taxes called NOVA & Andersons, however we’ve heard an awful lot of bad reviews such as they don’t pay your taxes properly - at the end of the tax year, you are being struck with big tax bills as they are not paying them properly. (Also heard from Drivers that they are under investigation from HMRC, but possibly rumours)
Before my partner goes to work for ADR, he wants to make sure he learns from peoples experiences as so far no one we’ve heard from HASN’T had a unexpected bill & has had such bad experiences.
Just looking for past drivers and their experience - are they reliable payers? are they a trustworthy company or should we look at other agencies?
HannuhCoop:
Good afternoon,
I hope I’m posting in the right place, apologies if I’m not.
I have a few questions of if anyone has worked with ADR Agency.
My Partner is currently just signed on to work with ADR Agency & you have to have a separate company that pay your taxes and pay yourself etc.
There are 2 companies that are linked with ADR to pay you & pay our taxes called NOVA & Andersons, however we’ve heard an awful lot of bad reviews such as they don’t pay your taxes properly - at the end of the tax year, you are being struck with big tax bills as they are not paying them properly. (Also heard from Drivers that they are under investigation from HMRC, but possibly rumours)
Before my partner goes to work for ADR, he wants to make sure he learns from peoples experiences as so far no one we’ve heard from HASN’T had a unexpected bill & has had such bad experiences.
Just looking for past drivers and their experience - are they reliable payers? are they a trustworthy company or should we look at other agencies?
No, they are an outlet for NOVA, tricking drivers into taking low PAYE style pay for what amounts to self-employed contract work.
The headline rates that they entice you in with are usually things like £14ph which is the sunday overtime rate for working at Morrisons, Iceland, or Nisa - in my case.
The key here is “overtime”… You have to do 40 hours monday-friday at much lower (£8-£9.50ph) before you’ll ever be given some of that plummy weekend rate work.
Then there’s the commission that is taken out for the “Umbrella Fee”: Because this is “free” on a week you get no work - you’ll always be strongly advised to take at least one shift per week.
8 hours @ £8ph less a fee of around £27 doesn’t leave you much in your paypacket, but this takehome pay is “enhanced” back up again to look more reasonable - by giving you tax offsets you may not be actually entitled to.
The whole thing stinks, quite frankly - and I’m surprised that such outfits as NOVA and ADR in particular get to stay in business for so long.
They’ll likely offer you a 7-12 hour contract (rather than zero) thus guaranteeing you (and obliging you to take!) a single shift per week - thus being able to charge their fees each and every week.
When I told them I did not want to join the umbrella, and I insisted upon PAYE work ONLY - I got no work at all of course. I didn’t sign the contract because it had “must have payroll processed by our umbrella firm” written into it. No thanks! Anything they tell you therefore such as "I can assure you Mr Bloggs, that everything here is legal and above board" is a lie. Umbrella companies in general are under investigation by HMRC - but they seem to be taking a bloody long time to come to any conclusions… I suspect it’s because the Government don’t want this sudden bunch of workers who think they are “employed” to suddenly realize that they are anything but - and massing up the unemployment statistics whilst the blue meanies are still in power.
These are the kind of outfit that give Agencies a bad name, and yet food/supermarket yards in particular seem to fall over themselves to use such dodgy firms.
A very informative post by winseer and I agree with it.
There is nothing wrong with him setting up as a LTD company and processing his tax and everything himself, best to use an accountant and keep good books.
If you keep good books and record all expenses the accountant shouldnt charge much per year, either way it will be A LOT less than nova take as fees.
HannuhCoop:
Good afternoon,
(Also heard from Drivers that they are under investigation from HMRC, but possibly rumours)
Not a rumour. Although not that particular agency, the record for a bill from the HMRC for a driver on this website who worked in a similar way with another agency is over £15,000 with posted proof of the letter as well.
war1974:
I doubt after this they will now be a think accounting.
Seems they didn’t learn too many lessons from what I’ve seen of them earlier this year. Promises about expenses claims halving the tax bill compared to PAYE which from the pay packets I’ve seen is about right.
Except I couldn’t find another umbrella company who’s online calculator who came close to NOVA’s online calculator (or the wage slips I saw) and HMRC documents also stated that many of the expenses claims weren’t legit for the circumstances. They were also very dismissive of any suggestion that anything they were doing could be questioned by HMRC.
They aren’t alone in these highly optimistic practices, but are one of the bigger companies.
Cant see it being a problem being paid through umbrella on PAYE, did that my self last year with THINK with no problem, although it would have been better if I could have claimed a bit more mileage to make it more worth while, I think it would be worth while if you can claim plenty of mileage.
Seems to be only a problem being LTD through umbrella, but feel free to correct that if it’s wrong.
Used NOVA early 2000 on LTD with no problem, but seems that HMRC clamped down a bit since then.
The way to get around the weekly fee if you only work one shift is to tell the agency to pay you the following week. Once upon a time when I was on Nova this was the way to avoid paying £25 per week if you only did a couple of shifts. Get them to pay you fortnightly then you only pay the £25 after the payment has gone in from the agency.
weeto:
Cant see it being a problem being paid through umbrella on PAYE, did that my self last year with THINK with no problem, although it would have been better if I could have claimed a bit more mileage to make it more worth while, I think it would be worth while if you can claim plenty of mileage.
Seems to be only a problem being LTD through umbrella, but feel free to correct that if it’s wrong.
Used NOVA early 2000 on LTD with no problem, but seems that HMRC clamped down a bit since then.
Being paid through an Umbrella company is FINE if the hourly rate is high enough… I suggest north of £20ph here…
If someone offered to get me shifts of at least 8 hours in length @ £20ph - I wouldn’t object then to paying a commission of £27per week for that work - in arrears!
I’m not the only one I think who does not want to pay over hard-earned for something they’ve yet to receive in the large amounts originally promised…
Always makes me super larfy the lengths people will go to , to avoid a bit of tax !
£1300 to a dodgy arse agency accountant . get real PAYE is free .And you never get surprise bills either .
I just hope these tax dodgers dont ever need the schools or hospitals they are so keen not to pay for .
Maybe there is a special 999 number(666?) , run by ryanair , that comes and shovels them into a minicab when they have an accident ?
Then get taken to a butchers where they just chop the bad bits off and throw the dodgers out onto the street ?
Plenty of agencies do PAYE , its the first question i ask .
ADR paid me PAYE , altho some years ago . but the worst thing about them is they put in the small print ‘must be willing to travel’ . so when they cancel u last minute they want u to work 40 miles away .
Presumably want people on umbrella fiddles so u can claim some travelling cost back , because they sure as hell dont pay for it .
But i dont see why the tax payer should be subsidising this chaos either
I went to ADR…got the ‘your better off on umbrella or even better off on LTD’,crap.I asked about PAYE they said we dont do it …the look on her face was priceless when I just said to her the ‘interview was over …goodbye’.
In the world of the ‘financial services industry’ of which the umbrella scam is a member of.The first warning is the line…‘you will be better off’,its all lies.
When they say “You’ll be better off” they assume that like BBC people - you are easily on the £20ph+ I mentioned above as being more suitable for umbrella purposes.
The tipping point then in Umbrella companies, where they change from being useful accountants to unscrupulous scammers - is that it is NOT suitable for those on less than £20ph - but they won’t tell you that!
Where is the sense in charging £27 on a payslip to “lighten one’s tax burden” by about both pence per week (if we only stick to those tax deductions that are actually legit here…)
It makes PERFECT sense to pay £27 on a payslip with £2453 for this week’s work as a newsreader, sports commentator, financial narthan boot, or whatever.
“Nice work if you can get it” - is the kind that is worth paying £27 commission on - so you are self-employed at say, the BBC when really they should be employing you directly, but cannot be arsed to either for whatever reason.
You need to be up for serious amounts of tax on a pretty hefty weekly pay invoice - so that if the straight-playing umbrella company can earn it’s grab purely by deducting things like travel, lunch, and fresh PPE once a year - rather than lunch for all your mates at some Pall Mall club, a New Fitten Kitchen, and a new tuxedo for your Mansion House dinner coming up…
The ordinary workers who try and claim like the politicians do - they are the ones who get the hefty back-tax bill a few months later of course…
Don’t let it be you.
If you’re on ordinary pay - umbrella is NOT for you.
There should never be any need to “pay to go to work” or “pay for work” come to that. Resist tooth and nail.
The suits are the enemy on this, so don’t give your money to them out of deference.
