Umbrella rejecting claims

[rickom]

Hello all,

I decided to take the plunge and start a limited. Informed my umbrella that I'll be not using their services any more. I had yet to claim a previous months expense when I had called them up regarding this and for December (current month). The umbrella is now suggesting I cannot claim the any site based expenses like subsistence/travel as they have a set of questions on the site which I cannot confirm. The questions are :

Have you, or do you expect to be, working for this end-client for less than 24 months?
Have you had, or do you expect to have, more than 1 temporary assignment with different end-clients at different sites with agency ?
Do you expect that this temporary assignment will NOT be your last one with agency ?

I am told i cannot confirm the above and am now being shafted for two months of claims. I do not understand that these are all do you "expect" questions which could be justified either way , but categorically I've been told I cannot make a claim. Any suggestions?

Happy holidays!

Cheers!

[Zippy]

If you have receipts can't you claim them via your tax return? Might be worth a call to HMR&C to ask.

PS Merry Christmas.

[NotAllThere]

Why can't you answer the questions? As a ltdco, you need to know the answers as well. Otherwise you might find you've claimed expenses you shouldn't have.

Have you been at the end-client for less than 24 months? When did you start? How long is your contract?
Do you work only at one location?
Do you intend to go back to permiedom after this contract?

Seems pretty simple to me.

[rickom]

Why can't you answer the questions? As a ltdco, you need to know the answers as well. Otherwise you might find you've claimed expenses you shouldn't have.

Have you been at the end-client for less than 24 months? When did you start? How long is your contract?
Do you work only at one location?
Do you intend to go back to permiedom after this contract?

Seems pretty simple to me.

Hi,
1) Yes,been about 4 months there, i have another 6 months extension
2) Yep, single client location
3) I am not too sure, I'd rather contract over there. ( Does this make a difference any way?)

Cheers!

[NotAllThere]

Misread the 2nd question.

Look, the point of these questions is to make sure that you don't break the rules about expenses claiming - like the 24 month rule, and that you can't claim T&S expenses if you leave permiedom, have one contract, then go back to permiedom.

The questions are pretty dumb, seeming to have been written by somone who doesn't actually understand themselves why they're asking the questions. But the answers are simple:

Have you, or do you expect to be, working for this end-client for less than 24 months? Yes - your contract is only 6 months. As soon as you know your going to exceed 24 months, you must stop claiming T&S.
Have you had, or do you expect to have, more than 1 temporary assignment with different end-clients at different sites with agency ? Yes. Chances are you'll be working for different agencies
Do you expect that this temporary assignment will NOT be your last one with agency ? Yes - you want to keep contracting.

Now. Confirm the above and get your expenses in.

[BolshieBastard]

Hello all,

I decided to take the plunge and start a limited. Informed my umbrella that I'll be not using their services any more. I had yet to claim a previous months expense when I had called them up regarding this and for December (current month). The umbrella is now suggesting I cannot claim the any site based expenses like subsistence/travel as they have a set of questions on the site which I cannot confirm. The questions are :

Have you, or do you expect to be, working for this end-client for less than 24 months?
Have you had, or do you expect to have, more than 1 temporary assignment with different end-clients at different sites with agency ?
Do you expect that this temporary assignment will NOT be your last one with agency ?

I am told i cannot confirm the above and am now being shafted for two months of claims. I do not understand that these are all do you "expect" questions which could be justified either way , but categorically I've been told I cannot make a claim. Any suggestions?

Happy holidays!

Cheers!

Get onto the director of the umbrella, tell him to tell his people to stop pissing about and authorise your legitimate expenses as you have been prevented from completing the required info.

Also, bear in mind its never a good idea to tell someone something is changing until you have got all the money you are owed out of them!

[rickom]

Had a word with them, they are not budging & citing it is part of their policy. Why is it that all companies treat you like tulips once you hand in your papers. This is Giant umbrella we are talking about.

The question i am caught under is :
Do you expect that this temporary assignment will NOT be your last one with agency ?

Agency meaning umbrella. Since i have "resigned" from them , they have put their hands up. Lesson learnt.

[malvolio]

Had a word with them, they are not budging & citing it is part of their policy. Why is it that all companies treat you like tulips once you hand in your papers. This is Giant umbrella we are talking about.

The question i am caught under is :
Do you expect that this temporary assignment will NOT be your last one with agency ?

Agency meaning umbrella. Since i have "resigned" from them , they have put their hands up. Lesson learnt.

The reason for this being that if it is your only role with them, you have to be treated as a full time employee with all that represents interms of employment rights and so on. Plus, of course, you can't claim bsuiness expenses since you are an FTE with a single location. As soon as you have two engagements, you can be treated as a temp.

So there's nothing sinister about it, it's just the jobsworth's following the company rule book. You want to be free of all such bollocks, get your own company. As you are about to discover!

[Wanderer]

they have a set of questions on the site which I cannot confirm.

They have to ask these questions. If you give the wrong answers then they can't pay the claim because it doesn't comply with HMRC's rules for expenses claimed from a temp work location.

The questions are :

Have you, or do you expect to be, working for this end-client for less than 24 months?

Have you had, or do you expect to have, more than 1 temporary assignment with different end-clients at different sites with agency ?

Do you expect that this temporary assignment will NOT be your last one with agency ?

It's up to you to consider your circumstances and answer the questions as best you can. If you don't know, then you have to consider the probabilities and made an educated guess. You can't claim expenses if you reasonably expect to be on site for > 24 months and this is the only assignment you will take on with this agency or it's the only temp assignment you will ever do.

Let me tell you a secret though - the answer they are looking for is yes to all three questions. If you answer anything other than yes to these questions then HMRC say you can't claim travel/subsistence. It's not the brolly's policy, it's HMRC's policy. Your umbrella won't want to get into a big discussion about the ins and outs of it, it's just the way the HMRC rules are.

[TheFaQQer]

So there's nothing sinister about it, it's just the jobsworth's following the company rule book.

It's not quite, though. As an employer, they must check whether the employee is entitled to claim expenses or not. It's HMRC's rulebook, not the company.

You want to be free of all such bollocks, get your own company. As you are about to discover!

Not quite - it just means that you need to be up to speed on the rules rather than someone else.