Increase In Businesses Hiring Temps And Contractors
Contract and temporary staff hires have increased significantly in 2024 compared to the end of last year, according to data from hiring platform Totaljobs. Their latest report focuses on the impact of skills shortages and what businesses are doing to address them. More than 1,000 HR decision-makers took part in the research, finding that recruitment […]
Landmark £40m Holiday Pay Case Could Have Major Implications
Supreme Court closes ‘loophole’, paving the way for temps and contractors to claim thousands in backdated holiday pay from their umbrella or recruitment agency. The case saw more than 3.700 police officers and civilian staff successfully claim backdated holiday pay from their employer, the Police Service of Norther Ireland (PSNI), which is deemed to have […]
The Government Is Listening To Us
Last week (07/07/23) was the deadline for responding to the government’s consultation on legislation changes resulting from leaving the EU. Sounds dull right? Perhaps! But within this consultation was an important section on holiday pay, including a proposal to officially allow rolled up holiday pay – which had previously been deemed unlawful by the EU. […]
HMRC Publish “Spotlight” Warning About Umbrellas
HMRC have issued a “spotlight” warning to agency workers and contractors, providing them with information about potential tax avoidance relating to using umbrellas. (Spotlights are HMRC’s series of publications about potential tax avoidance.) In this latest edition, HMRC explain how some umbrellas benefit from operating disguised remuneration schemes and how these might increase your net […]
Petition Launched Seeking To Ban Umbrella PSLs
A contractor has started an official petition to allow workers to have the right to choose their own umbrella. Here at IWORK, we’ve been banging this drum for ages now as preferred supplier lists are not usually in workers best interests, and in our opinion they don’t actually offer much real choice to the person […]
Do We Really Think Contractors Can’t Decide For Themselves?
Last week I posted a few thoughts on LinkedIn in relation to my proposal to abolish umbrella preferred supplier lists (PSLs), which is just one of my recommendations to the government consultation on the umbrella market. I have many concerns about PSLs and how they operate today, and in some cases they are cartel-like in […]
Time To Get Rid Of Umbrella Preferred Supplier Lists?
In the wake of recent cyber-attacks, I was asked by a journalist last week what I would recommend to contractors who are considering changing their umbrella, so I found myself thinking about this properly for the first time in ages. Whereas previously my answer would have been to look for accreditation, it is clear to […]
Temporary Workers Are Critical To The Economy!
Latest data shows that temporary and contract workers played a critical role in UK’s economy during the pandemic, with 980,000 temporary workers on assignment every day during 2020. Despite this being the height of the pandemic when so much was turbulent and unpredictable, the use of temporary workers was approximately the same as for 2019. […]
030 Help, I’m self-employed and can’t get a mortgage!
Help, I’m self-employed and can’t get a mortgage! True? Luckily not so much these days. In this podcast episode we’re dispelling lots of mortgage myths with the brilliant Gareth Love, founder of Roots Finance Group, who amongst other things is an expert in contractor mortgages. Join us to find out what is happening in the […]