Contractor Umbrella

Absolutely useless umbrella. Can’t manage to send invoices on time, 3 months in and still haven’t managed it without me emailing and calling. Ignore emails for weeks, again, you have to call, get passed around, told they’ll email. Then nothing. Don’t log basic info such as pension opt out. They literally haven’t done anything for the fee I’ve paid. They’ve not invoiced on time. If a payment is late they don’t even notice so they definitely won’t be chasing your end client for you. Can’t process basic admin and info. Resigning now as I can’t live month to month with no idea if I’ll get paid due to their incompetence.

I chose Contractor Umbrella as they offered transparency, lower fees that other umbrellas, salary sacrifice, non accrued holiday pay as standard. Have found them to be responsive and available, and reactive to my needs. So I am happy to recommend them. This appears to be the only review so far not moaning about furlough, and as that's no longer relevant I hope others find this helpful.

Utterly unacceptable response to Covid-19, no information volunteered, and actively dismissed when asked for updates. They were pretty ropey at responding to things prior to this, but now have become quite rude (change of contract manager with no notice, hung up on a couple of times or not even answered phone calls, and I have only found out they are not fulfilling the JRS through this forum). Will be seeking an alternative UC for my next contract. Very disappointed in their treatment of us.

Eventually confirmed they will not furlough any workers. Did not pro-actively keep workers updated on progress and after prompting gave various excuses along the way to this decision. In the end, did not clarify why no furlough. Feel utterly let down by both Government and Umbrella Co.

One of the few umbrellas who have flat refused to furlough any of their contractors, causing us to miss out on £2500 per month.

No information provided. Seems they have decided against helping their contractors. I will never be using this organisation again.

is thid run by theloadsamoney guy who is suing teh government for putting the country into lockdown to save lives? the bottom line is important but it aint everything

self serving organisation, other umbrellas are doing the right thing by their workers but this lot are not, what goes around comes around, in the future people will just choose to use other umbrellas, because they have a choice

Still refusing to furlough, although many weeks after the announcement of the scheme, it is apparently still being looked into internally ... so perhaps there is a glimmer of hope

Thank you for asking about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. As everyone will now be aware, the Government has put into place special measures to help workers during the current coronavirus (Covid-19) situation. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) allows eligible PAYE workers to be "furloughed" so that employers don't have to lay off staff in these uncertain times. For any other employer, using the scheme would be the most sensible option as it would allow them to keep staff and not incur salary costs, as the Government will be taking on this cost themselves (paying 80% of the normal salary, up to £2500 per month). However, for umbrella employers, the situation isn't so simple. Workers are only eligible to be paid National Minimum Wage under the scheme, and any "discretionary bonus" or "commission payment" is excluded. And, although the Government has decided to cover Employers' National Insurance contributions, which makes up one part of our employment costs, they have not included the Apprenticeship Levy which is also a significant sum and which would be a cost to us if not wholly covered under the scheme. Further, whilst furloughed, it seems likely that our workers will continue to accrue entitlement to paid leave. Without having a fund to pay that out of (because the worker has undertaken no work, and therefore no amounts have been generated), this will be another cost to umbrella employers. Alongside our duties as an employer, the small margin that we make to continue operating as a business is also not covered under the scheme. This means that we won't be generating any income to cover our overheads, even though resources will still be used to manage the scheme. For the above reasons, we have decided to not furlough any of our workers until we can be sure that taking part in the scheme won't cause substantial and ongoing losses. If the Government introduces any changes which makes us re-evaluate our position, we will be sure to let you know. Kind regards,

They're concerned about the holiday pay accruing, the apprenticeship levy and their overheads for managing the scheme. None of which they have funds to cover while I'm not earning. I had to ask them as they did not offer this information.