alder:
coreysboys I am a self-employed maintenance man and I get my mileage back through my accountant you don’t have to be PAYE
How come MP’s get to claim garden maintenance, and just about every other expense if there’s some doubt over being able to claim even to keep your transport (duly “business insured”) on the road?
You might get mileage, but what about MOT’s and repair bills?
shade:
I cant believe people are taking a nightshift for £8.50 let alone £7.50!!! WTF!!
- 1 .
The rates on agencies seem to be heading in the wrong direction and have been for some years . In my area , 5-6 years ago £13-£15 was commonplace . Now it’s around the 9 mark .
I keep getting asked to commute 30+ miles for less than £12 per hour, no expenses given.
It doesn’t pay, so I keep saying “no”.
My minimum rates are £10 local, £12 15-30 miles away, and £13.50 30-45 miles away. Got promised £9ph and a £50 bounty to go to Harlow once, but the £50 sounded like it was made up on the spot, so I politely declined. If it was a serious offer, then they could have just offered £14ph in an email which would have paid the same amount for a 10 hour shift - right? 
Something smelt about an email only promising £9ph and no mention of the £50 of course…
coreysboys:
Remember as a PAYE Agency employee (not umbrella or self-employed) you can offset the 140 miles travelling at 45p per mile against your tax. So a 10 hour shift @ £7.50 ph gets you £75. Deduct £63 for business mileage and your only taxable on the remaining £12 which would then be covered by your personal allowance. Do this for every shift during the year and its unlikely you will pay any tax.
In addition 5 x £75 shifts in a week= £375. Less 5 x £63 business mileage accrued = £315. Leaving a weekly taxable gross of ££60. Earning £60 per week will probably entitle you to full Housing and Council Tax benefit in my case equal to an extra £140 per week.If you have kids then Tax Credits would take £60 x 52 = £3120 as your annual income rather than the pre-deduction 5 x £375 = £19500, meaning you would get full child and working tax credits (worth £210 per week in my case) and free prescription, dental, optical etc.
Be picky if you want but you can make the system work for you by doing the distance jobs.
Thought you only got the tax back on 45p per mile not the full 45p so that would be £45 for 100 miles so tax back at 20% roughly £9
The only problem I’ve ever had with running pretty much this same system is that my car gets a lot less to the gallon in rush hour traffic, so £9 per 100 miles means I’m still losing money even with the mileage offset. This leaves me having to insist upon a higher base rate, now not being able to do £7.50ph-£11.50ph which is generally always available via agencies as distance work. 
Long distance on the motorway all the way works, town-town in the rush hour doesn’t. A better start time works wonders with this however, hence i very occasioanlly find myself doing sub-£10 work when it’s real easy to get to, and I know there’s a long shift to be had when I’m there.
Agencies, or ■■■■■■ parasites as I prefer to call them 
, are the scourge of the haulage industry, if these ■■■■■■■■ did not exist we would all be on a decent wage in line to what we were on 20yrs ago in relation to todays cost of living, but they do, so we aren’t Don’t EVER trust the ■■■■■■■■ end of… and work on the assumption that if they pay you what you consider to be a decent rate, they are sure as hell getting the better half of the deal.
robroy:
Agencies, or [zb] parasites as I prefer to call them
Unfortunately it’s not just the road haulage industry, as far as I can see workers in just about all industries are being beaten down by these bloody parasites.
Employment agencies appear to be the fastest growing industry at the moment, there’s agencies popping up all over the place
best thing to say to agency ok ill do that job but its putting me out of my way but is £10 per hour ok if not drop it to 9 after a haggle thats ok if you are in a position that you dont care