helping you choose a compliant umbrella
The umbrella sector has evolved to encompass many different contractual arrangements and payment mechanisms over the years. It can be confusing to navigate, and there are various different compliance accreditations seeking to give peace of mind that umbrellas are adhering to their prescribed standards.
The umbrella sector is currently unregulated, therefore we recommend choosing an umbrella which has achieved the standards required by a recognised umbrella accreditor.
There are a number of umbrella compliance accreditations in the market, and they differ in their standards and how they measure umbrella compliance. IWORK has chosen to work with the accreditors who ensure your tax and NICs are paid, which for us is the single-most important factor for umbrella workers.
For that reason, our umbrella partners must achieve compliance with one of our recognised accreditors, who are:
ERA Services
FCSA
PayePass
Professional Passport
WTT Consulting
What is an umbrella anyway?
The umbrella sector primarily exists to provide a mechanism to pay contractors, including all of the associated back-office functions such as payroll, P60s, P45s, pension, NMW compliance etc. By employing contractors, umbrellas are also responsible for all HR-related issues and they must provide all 84+ statutory rights of employment.
It makes sense for any businesses that engage contractors at scale to outsource responsibility for these individuals and payment processing to a third party, rather than undertaking considerable additional work in-house. For more information about umbrellas see What is an umbrella company.
