To help contractors interact and discuss positive and negative experiences with umbrella companies, we have recently added an umbrella company forum to our website. It’s early days and we’ve only had a few contributions so far, but we’re hopeful that over time, contractors and freelancers will use this free feature to discuss all-things umbrella companies. If you have any topics you would like to discuss, please visit our forum now. It’s also a great place to ask questions, and we’ll try and respond quickly to any that we can assist with.
How do you access the umbrella company forum?
To register to our umbrella company forum, please click here. You will need to create a profile, but don’t worry, it will take you under a minute. Once you have created your profile, you are free to post comments as you please.
We have initially created six topics to discuss, but we will be adding more soon
IR35 Questions and Concerns – IR35 is always a hot topic amongst the UK’s temporary workforce. In the mini-budget (September 2022), the government announced the off-payroll reforms will be repealed. However, they have shamefully gone back on their word. Do you have any questions about IR35? Do you have IR35 advice to share? Do you know any IR35 experts you recommend our readers use for IR35 assessments?
Umbrella Companies to Avoid – Please share your negative umbrella company experiences in this section to help other temporary workers make better decisions regarding their payroll provider.
Umbrella Company and Recruitment Agencies – Have you ever felt pressured into using an umbrella you don’t want to? Is your recruitment agency responsible with how they manage their Preferred Supplier List (PSL)? Share your experiences with agencies and umbrella companies – to help other workers seeking temporary assignments.
Umbrella Company Payslips – Have any questions about payslips? Ask away and share your experiences with other umbrella employees.
Umbrella Company Recommendations – Have you used an umbrella company that’s provided an excellent service? Please share your experiences with contractors and freelancers and spread the word!
Umbrella Compliance Questions – Do you have any questions about umbrella companies that fellow contractors and freelancers can help with? Please use this section of the umbrellacompanies.org.uk forums to raise any questions or concerns about your umbrella company (if you use one) or umbrella companies in general. The team at UCHQ will write articles on commonly asked questions and points of discussion.
Before you register, please read our umbrella company forum disclaimer
- Ensure your comments are relevant to the topic.
- Do not be disrespectful in what you write. Always treat every participant with respect and refrain from any discriminative or offensive language.
- Do not enter any defamatory information.
- If you see a comment that should be removed – please send a screenshot to UCHQ (info@umbrellacompanies.org.uk).
- Do not promote any unethical payroll practices or illegal activity.
- Do not post any copyright material.
- Do not comment on any legal proceedings or anything that could potentially break a court injunction.
- Avoid controversy.
- Only comment with factual information that you can back up.
- Do not post any personal information – either your own or other people’s. This includes names, phone numbers, email addresses and social media profiles.
- Do not spam the forum with unnecessary posts, or multiple posts that are effectively the same (e.g. try and post all your message in one message – rather than several in a short space of time).
- Only contribute towards the forum if you are over 18 years of age.
- Use the forum at your discretion. We will do our best to remove any comments that fall short of the standards we expect, but we cannot monitor them regularly.
- Always carry out thorough due diligence before joining a payroll provider.
- The UCHQ Team has the right to remove any comments we deem necessary – at our discretion. We also reserve the right to delete any profiles/accounts we believe are not contributing within these terms (the disclaimer).
Top 10 umbrella companies
Are you on the lookout for an umbrella company you can trust? To help you with your search, we’ve collated a list of our top 10 umbrella companies. They are accredited by either the FCSA or Professional Passport, and some have special offers at the moment.
