HMRC Guidance on umbrella companies
In general an umbrella company is a company that employs temporary workers, (agency worker or contractor) on behalf of an employment agency. The umbrella company does not find work for the workers they employ, it is the employment agency that provides the services of those workers to their clients. Find out more about umbrella companies here.
If you are paid by an agency directly, then the rate it offers you (commonly known as the PAYE rate) is the amount, before your tax and NIC, which you should receive. So if you have a PAYE rate of say, £9.50 per hour and work 35 hours you will be paid £9.50 x 35 = £332.50 as gross taxable pay. You will then have your PAYE tax and employee NIC deducted from this. But £9.50 is not the true cost to the agency who is paying you. In addition, they may have to pay things like employers’ national insurance, holiday pay and contributions into a workplace pension. As such, the cost to them of taking you on may be something more like £12 an hour. But you aren’t entitled to be paid the full amount of £12 —you are only entitled to the £9.50.
Hopefully you are familiar with this concept from any other assignments you have been in. So the £12.00 per hour the agency receives from the client, out of this the agency has to pay the Employers NIC, holiday pay, and other statutory costs. What is left is the £9.50 that the agency pays you gross (before any workers tax is deducted).
If you choose to work through an umbrella company, the agency will pass the umbrella company the full costs of your assignment– i.e. the £12 an hour (from the funds the agency themselves has received from the end client). So when the agency explains to you that you can get £9.50 an hour if you are paid through them, or £12 an hour if you are paid through an umbrella company. The ‘headline’ rate of £12 an hour is intended to cover the total costs of employment and is not the amount you are going to personally earn!
As such it can be very tempting to go with the £12 an hour – however, the umbrella company should show all deductions that have been made in your payslip. If they don’t then please question this with them and, in our view, you should not be signing up to any umbrella company that does not provide a fully worked example, based on your own status.
Please find below a list of current umbrella companies who work with Firstpoint Healthcare. Please contact them directly to decide which company is right for you. Firstpoint Healthcare recommend joining our pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) payroll. We do not recommend the use of umbrella companies. If you choose to work through an umbrella company please ensure that you make yourself fully aware of the deductions that the umbrella company will take before paying you. This may include:
You should ensure that you are fully aware of these deductions before engaging any umbrella company.
Contact number: 01253 600 140
Email address to send contracts to: enquiries@danbro.co.uk
Danbro – Limited Company accounting services & PAYE Umbrella Company for contractor
Contact number: 01276 538143
Email address to send contracts to (Beverley Standing): bstanding@edenoutsource.co.uk
EDENGROUP – Umbrella, PAYE, International, Limited Company and CIS services & Company
Contact number: 01925 937 025
Email address to send contracts to: charlotte.johnstone@foretwogroup.co.uk
Opening hours:
8am – 8pm Monday to Friday
9am – 12pm Saturdays
Contact number: 0207 231 0349
Email address to send contracts to: info@racsgroup.com
Contact number: 07595781248 or 01895 447 800
Email address to send contracts to: angelika.jaskula@jmkgroupuk.com
Contact number: 01625 539997
Sapphire – PAYE Umbrella and Limited Company Accountancy services for contractors and temporary workers
Email address to send contracts to: newbusiness@sapphireorg.co.uk
Contact number: 0345 034 1530
Email address to send contracts to: clientcare@peoplegroupservices.com