'Umbrella' company - higher take home pay...?

paddyrg

That doesn't sound true, can't see why it would be. There's nothing inherent in it. It really is like outsourcing payroll, making the costs yours. On those figures I'd totally let the agency bear the payroll cost. If anything goes wrong, you're dealing with them, not adding an extra layer of complication to be paid slower (certainly no faster) for negligible gain but potentially lack of access to some statutory benefits (although as it's temping it may be slightly different)

randomfandom

I must say, I'm leaning more towards the agency payroll option - not least because that's the one I'm most familiar with and I don't like adding layers of complexity to things anyway.

But I will call a couple of umbrella companies tomorrow to see what figures they come up with. I need every penny I can get my hands on at the moment so, even if I was taking home, say, just a tenner more a week with a brolly, that would be really helpful.

paddyrg

randomfandom wrote: »

I need every penny I can get my hands on at the moment so, even if I was taking home, say, just a tenner more a week with a brolly, that would be really helpful.

Totally understand, but doing an extra hour a week at work would be a better way to get it, in my humblest!

engineer_amy

Just a note of caution if you are doing some research on umbrella co's - legislation changed in April 2016 to ban the use of travel and subsistence expenses with agency workers, so if the umbrellas are telling you to submit weekly expense claims to get tax relief then run a mile. there are only a few allowable expenses for temp workers now - obviously it depends what line of work you are in (construction or engineering and you could claim PPE costs, IT you could claim software or training courses etc)
And not being able to claim a rebate is untrue - it may be that you are paying less tax due to the way the umbrella have manipulated the pay, so therefore would be less likely to be due a rebate, if that makes sense. But you can still check your figures and submit a request, same as always.

randomfandom

I've now spoken to an umbrella company and my weekly take home pay will be around £30 higher a week than if I was being paid PAYE. However, that includes holiday pay, so any time off would effectively be unpaid.

Hmmm... I am drawn to the umbrella option as at the moment as my priority is money, rather than time off. But if I do go down that road, it might only be for the short term and then switch back to the agency payroll if they allow that.

dawyldthing

But for every week you work you earn around 5 hours holiday pay ifyou work full time, so in that respect they are doing you out quite a bit of money

paddyrg

On an 8.5 hour day, you get (roughly) 1 hour holiday pay - 12.08%. That £30 is maybe 4 hours, so if you're working over 33 hours/week, it may not be as great a deal as it looks.