help understanding sons wage

kylestucon

Hi,
My son has been unemployed since beginning of january. The jobcentre sent him to a place called avanta which helps the umemployed find suitable jobs. He applied for lots of jobs and had a phone call from Arriva bus company saying there was a vacancy for someone temporary to work from 4.30pm til 12.30am cleaning buses in their depot in Newcastle for £8.50 an hour. He started this job on Monday and said that there was only three other men there and no boss to speak to so he didnt know how long job is for. He was given a telephone number and told to phone on a Monday morning with his hours worked and yesterday a company called Sprite rang him and asked for his bank details saying that he was self employed (which he didn't know) and said that they would send him an email and that they would be paying him and his tax and national insurance. I have looked them up and it says they are an umbrella company for agencies and on a samples payslip it said that his top wage would be £340.00 but they would take approx £15 off and tax and NI and PAYE and he would come out with around £247.00 a week. Does that sound right , i presume that he is working through an agency but no one told him and the other lads that he is working with get paid straight from arriva not sprite. He is confused are they taking tax and NI twice?

Lovelyjoolz

OK, back of a fag packet calculations:

£340.00 Gross pay
£ 37.00 Tax
£ 23.00 NI
£280.00 Net pay

Less the £15 they are charging him to run his payroll gives him £265 take home pay, so £247.00 sounds a bit low. He should check what other deductions they may be making.

He should also report Arriva to the Jobcentre and HMRC because they are technically forcing him into false self-employment. Usually to avoid paying employers NI.

Tell your son to keep looking for another job.

kylestucon

Thanks for your reply, but do you know if he has to go through this umbrella agency Sprite or can he just decline to deal with them and make arrangements to pay his own tax and NI ?

Lovelyjoolz

kylestucon wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, but do you know if he has to go through this umbrella agency Sprite or can he just decline to deal with them and make arrangements to pay his own tax and NI ?

When I've come across these situations in the past, it IS possible to tell Sprite to mind their own business and be paid the gross wage. He would then have to register as self-employed with HMRC and complete a SelF Assesment tax return at the end of each year (remembering to keep enough money back to pay the tax bill - which is eyewatering if paid in one, or two, lump sum payments!). A lot of faff for not much more than minimum wage

kylestucon

Thanks for your Quick reply Xx