tmcassett:
stu675:
No need to think of it as non guaranteed agency for credit/mortgage purposes. You are PAYE and it will just be a fact of time with employer and monthly earnings/ 3 months payslips type of thing.
You sure about that? Surely they will only base it on “guaranteed” hours when it comes to agency work. For instance when I was on agency a few years ago I was guaranteed 24 hours a week or 3 8 hour shifts whether they offered me any work or not.
To the OP might be worth speaking with a mortgage advisor and finding out what the score is regarding your situation
Thank you. One of my mates is a mortgage advisor so I will ask the question.
tmcassett:
stu675:
No need to think of it as non guaranteed agency for credit/mortgage purposes. You are PAYE and it will just be a fact of time with employer and monthly earnings/ 3 months payslips type of thing.
You sure about that? Surely they will only base it on “guaranteed” hours when it comes to agency work. For instance when I was on agency a few years ago I was guaranteed 24 hours a week or 3 8 hour shifts whether they offered me any work or not.
To the OP might be worth speaking with a mortgage advisor and finding out what the score is regarding your situation
Thanks, you’ve made me look into it a bit more. It’s not going to be exactly like an employee as you will be a worker, not an employee. But there will still be lenders available especially if you have year/multiple years consistency.
This must be the only job where doing a 40 hour week is classed as '‘part tine’ .
I cut my hours down to about 50 a week…again the only job where you cut DOWN to 50,…as my non driver mates are quick to point out to me.
robroy:
This must be the only job where doing a 40 hour week is classed as '‘part tine’ .
I cut my hours down to about 50 a week…again the only job where you cut DOWN to 50,…as my non driver mates are quick to point out to me.
And here’s me wishing for 12 hr driving and more spread time … 
Punchy Dan:
robroy:
This must be the only job where doing a 40 hour week is classed as '‘part tine’ .
I cut my hours down to about 50 a week…again the only job where you cut DOWN to 50,…as my non driver mates are quick to point out to me.
And here’s me wishing for 12 hr driving and more spread time …
Yep, I fully see your point, …Owner driver= more work time =more earnings, been there done that as an owner driver myself, not enough hours in the day and all that.
And in the 80s you could work as long as you could craftily get away with using various methods, 
risking only a fine, unlike today where it’s jail.
Thing is in those days I was in my early to late 20s, and fit as, if I’d carried on as an owner driver into my 40s and 50s, with the sane mindset and same work ethic, I’d be dead now…as at least 3 of the guys who were doing the same thing as me at the same age.and same time.
How many idiots (non owner drivers) who have done this for somebody else, spending their misearable endurance test style working lives running like their arses were on fire,.have either died before retirement, or within 3 years after, because of their lifestyle.
I know of quite a few.
You can’t take it with you Dan! 
That’s the end of a bit of (free) Robwisdom for today. 
robroy:
This must be the only job where doing a 40 hour week is classed as '‘part tine’ .
I cut my hours down to about 50 a week…again the only job where you cut DOWN to 50,…as my non driver mates are quick to point out to me.
I’d be looking at doing around 25hrs/week over 2 days. The maths can work and I’d not be too much out of pocket as long as I can get those hours. My only doubts now are my future creditworthiness for a remortgage in 3/4 years and the fact that it’s an agency and not a contract…
The O.P. should make certain to claim all that the family are ENTITLED to from the dear old Government, we all pay in plenty. We seem to give plenty to the work shy.
alamcculloch:
The O.P. should make certain to claim all that the family are ENTITLED to from the dear old Government, we all pay in plenty. We seem to give plenty to the work shy.
Indeed, but I’m not sure if there would be anything we’re entitled to with our household income probably still too high. Will definitely look into it if I make the jump though!
Goff118:
alamcculloch:
The O.P. should make certain to claim all that the family are ENTITLED to from the dear old Government, we all pay in plenty. We seem to give plenty to the work shy.
Indeed, but I’m not sure if there would be anything we’re entitled to with our household income probably still too high. Will definitely look into it if I make the jump though!
We were both working ( decent money , my girl was working 3 part time jobs & we still got family allowance & family credit , joke really , just paid for hols
This apx 15 yrs ago so may of changed , and no idea if family allowance / credits even exist these days
Goff118:
I’d be looking at doing around 25hrs/week over 2 days. The maths can work and I’d not be too much out of pocket as long as I can get those hours. My only doubts now are my future creditworthiness for a remortgage in 3/4 years and the fact that it’s an agency and not a contract…
If you need those 25 hours over the 2 days to be “guaranteed” as far your sums go then just be very careful with anything to do with agency work. By its very nature nothing is guaranteed or can be relied upon, the only exception being any minimum guarantee they offer (usually 8 hours).
For instance a few years ago I did a bit of agency work at Morrisons through ADR network and while the work was a doddle you struggled to get more than 8 hours per shift (if you didn’t get cancelled that was). I don’t really have that much experience of Tesco but did a few weeks out of their chilled depot at Hinckley and it was the same. Used to start at 5am and never worked past 12, so again just the minimum 8 hours pay. In the end it wasn’t worth it as I was commuting down there from Nottingham. Maybe it has changed since as this was around 2015/2016. In both instances being agency as I was I was looking to work less days and get more hours on the days I worked.
tmcassett:
Goff118:
I’d be looking at doing around 25hrs/week over 2 days. The maths can work and I’d not be too much out of pocket as long as I can get those hours. My only doubts now are my future creditworthiness for a remortgage in 3/4 years and the fact that it’s an agency and not a contract…
If you need those 25 hours over the 2 days to be “guaranteed” as far your sums go then just be very careful with anything to do with agency work. By its very nature nothing is guaranteed or can be relied upon, the only exception being any minimum guarantee they offer (usually 8 hours).
For instance a few years ago I did a bit of agency work at Morrisons through ADR network and while the work was a doddle you struggled to get more than 8 hours per shift. I don’t really have that much experience of Tesco but did a few weeks out of their chilled depot at Hinckley and it was the same. Used to start at 5am and never worked past 12, so again just the minimum 8 hours pay. In the end it wasn’t worth it as I was commuting down there from Nottingham. Maybe it has changed since as this was around 2015/2016. In both instances being agency as I was I was looking to work less days and get more hours on the days I worked.
Understood - that is the angle I will be coming at it from also, trying to get the hours in on the 2 days I work. The 25 hours/week wouldn’t be a strict requirement for the maths to work, but based on my experience of the Sunday shifts I’ve been doing since February, I should be able to get at least 20 hours a week in at the worst case. I’d also be flexible for the odd evening shift through the week, to boost the hours if required.
Sorry to revive this old thread (that 16 months has flown by!) but after a lot of deliberation, and a continuing run of consistent agency work with Tesco, I have decided to make the leap in the New Year.
So from January onwards I will be aiming to work Sunday, Monday and Tuesday each week (or Thursday depending on demand), and looking after our 2-year-old on Wednesday and Fridays. I am looking forward to the change, as Mon-Fri in an office for 11 years has started to really wear me down this last few months, hence the decision to make a change.
It should quickly become clear on how well I can make it work, and with the first few months of the year usually being quiet, it’ll perhaps be the best test of whether it can work for us. I have built up some savings that should last me a year even if I just had a Sunday shift every week but am hoping I won’t need to touch that. There is also regular Saturday work available but again, I’d hope I don’t need to work Saturday and Sunday, although the hourly rate is tempting.
There will be many questions over the next few months, but my first one is how (and when), I go about changing my tax code so that the agency work is no longer taxed at Basic Rate. Is this just a simple call to the tax office to advise them of the change, or is it all done automatically when I finish employment in my full time job?
Any other input and advice on things I may not have thought of would also be very much appreciated!
My advice to anyone is if you can afford to go part time then do it, there’s more to life than work and your a long time dead.
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Your tax code will change automatically… eventually.
But if you want to get it done quicker, you can ask them.
“If you believe your tax code is wrong you should contact HMRC who will issue your employer with a revised tax code as required. This can be done by phone – 0300 200 3300 – or on-line .”
stu675:
Your tax code will change automatically… eventually.
But if you want to get it done quicker, you can ask them.
“If you believe your tax code is wrong you should contact HMRC who will issue your employer with a revised tax code as required. This can be done by phone – 0300 200 3300 – or on-line .”
Brilliant, thanks Stu, I’ll get on to them after I get my last full-time monthly pay.
Working part time you will be entitled to holidays “pro-rata” would near guess also.
At Tesco over the weekends you’ll get the 33% premium rate so hourly rate should be decent enough Fri midnight to Sun midnight.
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Big Truck:
Working part time you will be entitled to holidays “pro-rata” would near guess also.
At Tesco over the weekends you’ll get the 33% premium rate so hourly rate should be decent enough Fri midnight to Sun midnight.
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Yep, I’ve been working for them every other Sunday for 18 months and can’t fault them, or the work at all. Just hope it stays fairly consistent now so I’m sure not left scratching around for other agency work elsewhere. Am told January should be OK but February and March may quieten down, so have a backup agency that I’ll try to get some shifts with to keep them happy once I have the spare working days.
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"Wot you don’t spend and waste - is as good as a “Win”.
You might gross £150 for a shift for example, take home £100 of that after tax…
Your round trip to work (commute 20 miles) might cost you at least a tenner in fuel.
Your wasted time of 2hrs performing that round trip commute through normal heavy traffic - costs you two hours pay at whatever your time is worth these days…
All in all, you’re about £50-£60 better off at most for having an entire day wasted of your valuable time.
Then factor in nursery/childcare costs on top?
Then factor in the need to eat meals at seperate times, costing extra gas/electric to cook multiple times per day at home?
ALSO factor in that working full time at a well-paid job - means breaking into the higher tax rate, which reduces even further the £50-£60 I mentioned above.
I reckon a good balance is 4x12 hour shifts or 3x15 hour shifts these days - for 48 hours or 45 hours respectively.
Now once upon a time - THOSE hours would BE considered “Full Time”.
My, how times have changed!
You can get such hours above - on agency - but there’s far too few employers of full timers prepared to make any kind of “Flexitime” compromise.
I wonder how many of the nearby-living or simply better quality drivers have shied away from taking a full time job because the firm simply doesn’t offer the right working patterns to suit?
“Rotating over 17/26 week reference period any five from seven” earlies, lates, nights, graveyard shift patterns - is NOT the answer, as I’ve all-too-often said.
Yep, I’ve worked out that if I can get 30 hours per week I’ll be better off than I currently am working 40+ per week. I’ll also have 4 days off instead of 1/2 per week.
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So a quick update after quitting my full time office job at the end of 2023…
I have now had 3 months of agency only work. All shifts apart from 1 have been with the agency I have been working for since March 2022.
January started quietly as I had been warned, but I still managed to get 9 shifts in total, which along with the few shifts I did over the Christmas meant I didn’t need to touch my savings.
February picked up quickly and I managed to add to my savings, which was a bonus,and I have now earned enough in March to cover my bills etc, so that anything else I do this month can go into savings.
The childcare days I have with our 2 year old are far more enjoyable than the couple of hours per day I used to get after finishing in the office, so that side of things is also going well.
I must admit that it is a little daunting not knowing for sure what my earnings are going to be for the coming month. I am also now more aware that I can not afford to make any serious mistakes in the job. This is perhaps a good thing, but it feels far more real now that this agency gig is my sole earner, if that makes sense. All points that are obvious as an agency worker, but as I say, it’s not until you are doing it for real that they become clear.
However, overall I am very happy with the decision so far, and hopefully I can keep it going this well at least until our 2 year old is in school full time! 
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