steve_24v:
Agency holiday pay ?
Now there’s a whole can of…
There seem to be two types of “agency pay” in my experience.
One is where you get a small bonus added to a pot per shift worked. The amount added depends upon the hourly rate x hours, so if you did say, 13 weeks of £10ph average then you’d get more than 13 weeks of £9.00 so it makes sense. The money added isn’t deducted from your pay - its an accrued bonus, and therefore proper holiday pay.
The second kind of “holiday pay” is where a deduction (15% ish!) is made from your pay, and the money paid into a “holiday pot” to disguise the fact that you are in fact self-employed/umbrella whilst the agency pretend you are PAYE.
Effectively the “holiday pot” is an enforced savings plan paid for with your own money! You may even find that the deduction is made from net pay (ie you’ve already paid tax on it!), and when you decide to take the holiday, you’ll get it taxed for a second time under these “pseudo PAYE” rules that are in fact giving away nothing whatsoever, and accruing ZERO holiday pay, as you paid for it all (maybe twice over!) yourself. 
Any agency that doesn’t offer an “opt out” of such commission-laden schemes (I’m getting started on “salary sacrifice now!”) is out to con you by acting as a kick-back agent for the third-party firm they operate on behalf of, which should never be necessary if you really are paye in the first place!
With some agencies, I’ve opted out of expenses, because you had to pay £27 a week to get them, regardless of you getting a single 8 hour shift that week or 48 hours worth… You really do end up paying for the privelage of going to work! At least they gave me the opt-out though, which still causes problems when they expect me to do a 100 mile round trip with no expenses paid to “do a favour” and keep some client happy after a last-minute calculation. 
Shame I never seem to get the favour returned before the firm goes under!, or pulls their work off the books!
If there is ever a dispute that ends up in court, make sure you’ve got the tacho printouts to back you up. They include the registration of vehicles driven that some firm is trying to say you didn’t drive on such and such day and place.
They are in hot water indeed if they don’t provide “who drove this vehicle” to investigators when pushed for the data. This will protect you from clients “slow paying” and an agency who’s on the edge, and reluctant to push the client for prompt payment. It WON’T protect you from an agency going bust before you get paid though, as they could steal everyone’s money and go to barbados without fear of comeback, such are our stupid laws in the UK that allow little enforement against limited companies. Personally, I reckon any firm going bust should be a criminal act IF the directors are not declared insolvent at the same time. Instead, they just run off with the firm’s money that’s left, and default the firms debts whilst remaining personally solvent… I don’t ever recall seeing an ex-company director living in cardboard city or even on the DSS! I’m sure they exist, but like an endangered spiecies, they are difficult to find.
Anyone who says he can’t afford to pay me when he’s clearly more well-heeled than I am is a crook in my book, and I’m always wary of people who ask too much of me before my first lot of pay comes through.
) I contacted an office in Birmingham asking a few questions about whether we’d need any form of certification to do the job.
