Are contracting jobs the new “job for life” career choice for those heading to the UK to work? As more of us seek increased working flexibility, better development prospects and more employment control it seems that the notion of a “job for life” could be becoming a thing of the past. Since the millennium, more and more of us have been opting for contract and agency work offering better career development opportunities, increased variety of work, flexible working hours and often better pay rates. With some of these reasons proving more practical, it would be silly to ignore the benefits contracting can have on allowing you to
develop a better work/life balance. With all these factors considered, how do you begin your contracting career in the UK?
Getting started with contract work is a breeze, there are thousands of recruitment agencies that place candidates for contract and temporary work that arrange placements in a huge variety of working sectors and businesses. Rate My Teaching Agency offers independent agency rankings from people on the ground who have already experienced their services. Once you’re registered with a recruitment agency or agencies, you can pick and choose the
work you want to accept in the locations you’d like to be in. This gives you the flexibility to work in multiple locations giving you fresh and varied working challenges while giving the control to you and you only. The added beauty of contract work is the freedom to manage your own working hours, allowing you to work as much or as little as you’d like leaving time to experience a new country, travel while making new friends and memories.
After that, the only thing you need to arrange is your method of payment for the work you’re completing. When it comes to getting your money, there are a few options available to you, but one thing is for sure – this is the step to make sure you get right, it’s more important than ever to ensure the solution of your choosing is compliant and legal, if it’s found not to be, it’ll land you in hot water.
Here’s a few tips and tricks to look out for:
1. Bare in mind that paying tax and national insurance is inevitable whilst you’re in the
UK, so if you’re take home pay seems too good to be true – it probably is.
2. You receive a tax-free allowance of £11,850 which is divided into a weekly threshold
of £228 which when crosses will subject any further income to PAYE tax of 20%.
3. When speaking to an umbrella company, ask for the following:
a. Are you based in the UK?
b. Do you show all deductions on your payslips? (PAYE, NI, Employers NI, Apprenticeship Levy)
c. What is your margin?
d. Will I become an employee of this umbrella company?
e. Do you provide a relocation service?
f. Do you offer a Holiday Pay scheme?
g. Do you offer a Pension?

Here at Generate, we have been providing 100% compliant payroll solutions for contractors for 6+ years. We’re very proud to have working relationships with nearly every recruitment agency in the UK while offering specific in-country solutions in 58 countries world-wide.
Working with an umbrella company is easy, we manage a weekly/monthly payment to you of your wages, submit your tax and national insurance to HMRC and offer a single record of employment. This means, whether you’re working with one agency or ten, we group your payments into one payslip, there are also no joining or leaving fees and of course no fees for any weeks unworked.
As education specialists, Generate offer a whole host of additional perks. We firmly believe in supporting the independence of the contracting industry and offering individual development where possible such as free CPD courses in a huge range of topics and subject areas. We also offer retail discounts and cash back schemes, half price cinema tickets, technology discounts, discounted gym membership and so much more, all coupled with dedicated and friendly support from our team.

For more information, or to discuss the best solution for you, give our team a call on 0207 231 0349. Alternatively, if it’s easier you can email us at hello@generate-fs.co.uk. We’re here to help!

One comment on “Generate Payroll Solution

  1. C P
    at 5:42 pm

    You should be paying your furloughed employees a reasonable wage not £125 a week for someone who normally earns £500 a week this is not 80% and is nowhere near 80% of minimum wage. Disgusting behaviour in these difficult times

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