Contractor Umbrella - I would never, ever, use again

[Sandy100]

Hi everyone, after a few weeks of to and fro (mostly circular discussion) I wanted to share my experience.

Here's the detail (lowest priority first):

1. The contracts provided by me were not initially set up correctly. I had to chase CU to even be able to able to raise invoices at the outset.

2. The system does not allow odd days (e.g. 0.3) even though my employer does. CU's suggestion was to change my invoice, which obviously doesn't work. It took many, many weeks to get it paid and about 20 chasing emails.

3. I was promised the ability to make pension contributions from day one. I then received an email to say they'd be made from month three, and again I had to challenge. The challenge was successful but I shouldn't have had to do it.

4. And most importantly, despite me paying CU they don't do any automatic chasing or following up of unpaid invoices. Even when I asked for this to happen (several times) there was a total lack of proactivity. The summary is that payments were made many weeks later and CU admitted fault.

5. As a result of the late payments, some of them fell into a new tax year. Payments made for work in March (19/20) were paid and taxed in April (20/21). That's excusable. However a payment made for work in *February* (19/20) was also not paid until April (20/21), which is totally unacceptable. I will have an increased marginal tax rate on these and missed out on some of last year's pension allowance - it's cost me over a grand. CU's gesture of goodwill was £25.

It's not the end of the world - there are far worse things in life at the moment - but for anyone thinking of signing up you might bear this in mind.

Thanks for reading this far and I hope the info is helpful to someone. Stay safe!

[WTFH]

2. The system does not allow odd days (e.g. 0.3) even though my employer does. CU's suggestion was to change my invoice, which obviously doesn't work.

A couple of questions:
1. Were you on an hourly rate or a daily rate? If you were on a daily rate, why would you charge for less than a full day? If you were on an hourly rate, why would you charge for a fraction of an hour?

2. Why could you not change your invoice? You say it “obviously doesn’t work”, but without explanation as to why.

[northernladuk]

Your employer? You mean your client or the umbrella?

[Wary]

During my relatively brief stint with CU, whilst I wouldn’t want to portray my experience as being totally negative, I have experienced a number of issues including:
- invoices raised late (& hence paid late) on multiple occasions
- incorrect pension contribution being deducted
- pension contribution not included as part of the monthly upload to the SIPP provider
- insufficient explanation for what appeared to be inconsistent payslips (which may of course been correct)
- P45s from previous employments were not taken into account despite having been provided
Had they been willing to furlough me then it could have been a case of all-is-forgiven for the above, but alas not.

Going forward, any further contract work I undertake via a brolly will be through a company that are participating in CJRS.

[Sandy100]

A couple of questions:
1. Were you on an hourly rate or a daily rate? If you were on a daily rate, why would you charge for less than a full day? If you were on an hourly rate, why would you charge for a fraction of an hour?

2. Why could you not change your invoice? You say it “obviously doesn’t work”, but without explanation as to why.

I'm on a daily rate but my employer allows fractions to be charged. The CU system also allows fractions to be charged, but only 0.25, 0.5, 0.75. I'd already invoiced by employer for 0.3 days which had been approved, and I couldn't retrospectively change that 0.25 for CU's sake (and nor would I want to).

[Sandy100]

Your employer? You mean your client or the umbrella?

Good question - client. In the end it was worked out by CU, but it took months to do so.

[Sandy100]

During my relatively brief stint with CU, whilst I wouldn’t want to portray my experience as being totally negative, I have experienced a number of issues including:
- invoices raised late (& hence paid late) on multiple occasions
- incorrect pension contribution being deducted
- pension contribution not included as part of the monthly upload to the SIPP provider
- insufficient explanation for what appeared to be inconsistent payslips (which may of course been correct)
- P45s from previous employments were not taken into account despite having been provided
Had they been willing to furlough me then it could have been a case of all-is-forgiven for the above, but alas not.

Going forward, any further contract work I undertake via a brolly will be through a company that are participating in CJRS.

Oh...

I haven't checked that my pension provider has actually received what was promised by CU. Did you notice differences?

I was due a £15 tax refund in one week and apparently they expect to charge their £25 margin on this! So watch out for that too.

[Wary]

Oh...
I haven't checked that my pension provider has actually received what was promised by CU. Did you notice differences?

Yes, it was by me proactively reconciling the amount uploaded against my payslips that this came to light. The other issues I listed such as missing payments & incorrect pension deduction required me to proactively check too.

[Sandy100]

Yes, it was by me proactively reconciling the amount uploaded against my payslips that this came to light. The other issues I listed such as missing payments & incorrect pension deduction required me to proactively check too.

Oh wow...... back to the payslips I go!

[WTFH]

I'm on a daily rate but my employer allows fractions to be charged. The CU system also allows fractions to be charged, but only 0.25, 0.5, 0.75. I'd already invoiced by employer for 0.3 days which had been approved, and I couldn't retrospectively change that 0.25 for CU's sake (and nor would I want to).

Is your contract direct with your "employer" or with CU?