The government have recently released a call for evidence as HM Treasury try to understand the umbrella market; they wish stakeholders to provide feedback on how they interact with the tax and employment rights systems.
They wish to understand from workers, recruitment agencies and end-clients, their experiences of interacting with umbrella companies. As the umbrella company market has grown, there is growing concern that a small proportion of umbrella companies are exploiting employment rights and the tax system and undercutting those umbrella companies that are operating compliantly and transparently. This could be through the use of uncompliant models (mini-umbrellas, loan schemes) or solutions that circumnavigate things like sick pay.
We welcome this consultation and the possibility of further regulation of the industry. Whilst we are FCSA accredited and pride ourselves on only the highest levels of compliance, unscrupulous operators are still abound and cause a blight on the sector. It is important that those operating uncompliant models are prevented from doing so and only those businesses upholding high levels of compliance are allowed to continue to operate.
The below link will take you to HM Treasury’s call for evidence page; we encourage you to understand their aims and share your views and experience of dealing with umbrella companies in order to help shape a more compliant future:
The government’s call for evidence on the umbrella company market is now open and will be running until 11:45pm on 22 February 2022. If you want to respond you can – the government’s website has an email address to use for that purpose.