I dont know if this should be made a sticky but i feel it is of great importance to all agency people or people that are just starting out with an agency.
DO NOT USE UMBRELLA PAY COMPANIES i cant say this strongly enough. I have just spent 3 days and countring trying to track down all my pension contributions for the last 5 years. half of the companies now dont exist so cant be contacted the other half the penstion isnt with the company the goverment check site says it should be with. The umbrella companies dont want to know and the agencies cant tell you.
unless you are 100% organised and know all the pitfalls going in and have the patiants to deal with these idiots that can hardly string a sentance together dont do it.
This is also on top of all the tax scams that end up bitting you as well as costing you more money than you would get on paye.
cooper1203:
I dont know if this should be made a sticky but i feel it is of great importance to all agency people or people that are just starting out with an agency.
DO NOT USE UMBRELLA PAY COMPANIES i cant say this strongly enough. I have just spent 3 days and countring trying to track down all my pension contributions for the last 5 years. half of the companies now dont exist so cant be contacted the other half the penstion isnt with the company the goverment check site says it should be with. The umbrella companies dont want to know and the agencies cant tell you.
unless you are 100% organised and know all the pitfalls going in and have the patiants to deal with these idiots that can hardly string a sentance together dont do it.
This is also on top of all the tax scams that end up bitting you as well as costing you more money than you would get on paye.
Was the coffee smell that strong you woke up 
THE ONLY GOOD UMBRELLA KEEPS YOU DRY FROM THE RAIN !
blue estate:
cooper1203:
I dont know if this should be made a sticky but i feel it is of great importance to all agency people or people that are just starting out with an agency.
DO NOT USE UMBRELLA PAY COMPANIES i cant say this strongly enough. I have just spent 3 days and countring trying to track down all my pension contributions for the last 5 years. half of the companies now dont exist so cant be contacted the other half the penstion isnt with the company the goverment check site says it should be with. The umbrella companies dont want to know and the agencies cant tell you.
unless you are 100% organised and know all the pitfalls going in and have the patiants to deal with these idiots that can hardly string a sentance together dont do it.
This is also on top of all the tax scams that end up bitting you as well as costing you more money than you would get on paye.
Was the coffee smell that strong you woke up
THE ONLY GOOD UMBRELLA KEEPS YOU DRY FROM THE RAIN !
nope pre getting my license all warehouse work was paid through umbrella scheems lots of agencies wouldnt entertain paye
Yeah right, and I also discovered that the umbrella companies not only stop your N.I. fair enough, but they also sting the driver for THEIR contribution too!
Let me explain for hose who are new to N.I. contributions.
An employer deducts the correct amount of N.I. and Tax from your Gross wages giving you Take Home pay or Nett pay. Then they have to make another contribution of N.I. from their own pocket as well. This is normal.
What some, most of all of the umbrella companies do is take that contribution of N.I. that they are supposed to make - out of the drivers wages. This will give you less nett pay to take home and is probably illegal.
I was with a really good company and I left I was on PAYE. They used a company to pay us which was not Umbrella.
When I asked for my P45 they told me to ask the employer. I said, but you are the paymasters and should have the P45’s in your desk. She said they sent it to the employer, I said, if you are paying me you must tell the employer to send me my P45 then.
If you have the choice use a company that has its own accounts department who pay you.
And choose P.A.Y.E. not Umbrella, if you choose LTD you should get 100% of your pay but then you have to pay your own tax and insurance and open an account with HMRC who are very helpful.
Newbie 1:
Yeah right, and I also discovered that the umbrella companies not only stop your N.I. fair enough, but they also sting the driver for THEIR contribution too!
Let me explain for hose who are new to N.I. contributions.
An employer deducts the correct amount of N.I. and Tax from your Gross wages giving you Take Home pay or Nett pay. Then they have to make another contribution of N.I. from their own pocket as well. This is normal.
What some, most of all of the umbrella companies do is take that contribution of N.I. that they are supposed to make - out of the drivers wages. This will give you less nett pay to take home and is probably illegal.
I was with a really good company and I left I was on PAYE. They used a company to pay us which was not Umbrella.
When I asked for my P45 they told me to ask the employer. I said, but you are the paymasters and should have the P45’s in your desk. She said they sent it to the employer, I said, if you are paying me you must tell the employer to send me my P45 then.
If you have the choice use a company that has its own accounts department who pay you.
And choose P.A.Y.E. not Umbrella, if you choose LTD you should get 100% of your pay but then you have to pay your own tax and insurance and open an account with HMRC who are very helpful.
its worse than that or can be. If you are a new company you get certain tax relife and help with the first x number of employees. so what these con artists do is keep changing the name of the company to get the benefits and charge you both lots of stamp and tax and then pocket the money as they dont have to pay it. Once the benefits run out they just shut up shop and start again leaving yoy with any unpaid dues. And dont forget they charge you 15 quid for the privalidge of stealing your money!!
If you think about it logically of course they are at it. The agency wants the employees to go on it because it costs them less and the umbrella company wants to make money out of the tax savings. The famous selling point of earning £1 per hour more is blown out of the water straight away from the two lots of NI, never mind any fees.
Rarely is the worker better off (often worse off) and could end up with a tax investigation into expenses submitted.
I haven’t really followed how the law has changed recently and how many umbrella companies are still out there, but it is obviously still going on to some degree.
The most laughable story I have heard an umbrella company come up with was that your holiday pay comes out of tax savings. Nice one. How these people sleep at night I don’t know.
there is a member on here on one of the other sections thats up on all the ins and outs of it all and his reconing is it should be a further 35% to equate to paye not 1 pound