Help - Client won't pay Umbrella company and umbrella company won't pay me

[cojak]

It could be, just a thought this, that Safe Collections only see problem ones?

But are there any that don’t have this, or does every contractor who uses an umbrella just has to hope that the client is ethical and will deign to pay them?

[Lance]

But are there any that don’t have this, or does every contractor who uses an umbrella just has to hope that the client is ethical and will deign to pay them?

I’ve never used an umbrella. And to be honest cannot see that I ever will. If I’m going to be employed by someone it’s going to the company not a middleman.

[madame SasGuru]

But are there any that don’t have this, or does every contractor who uses an umbrella just has to hope that the client is ethical and will deign to pay them?

To a limited sense you have to look at it from the umbrella company's viewpoint - if an agency goes bankrupt owing the contractor / umbrella that month's payment the umbrella company doesn't have (and will never have) the means to pay the contractor. Hence the umbrella needs a clearcut "pay on received payment" clause as otherwise the umbrella has a big problem.

That's not to say that an umbrella company shouldn't do anything they can to ensure payment is received - but they do need to cover the neither of us are going to see the money scenario. Sadly many umbrella's won't do that as it will be more important to keep their marketing department (often the agency responsible for payment) happier than a solitary contractor.

[Snarf]

To a limited sense you have to look at it from the umbrella company's viewpoint - if an agency goes bankrupt owing the contractor / umbrella that month's payment the umbrella company doesn't have (and will never have) the means to pay the contractor. Hence the umbrella needs a clearcut "pay on received payment" clause as otherwise the umbrella has a big problem.

That's not to say that an umbrella company shouldn't do anything they can to ensure payment is received - but they do need to cover the neither of us are going to see the money scenario. Sadly many umbrella's won't do that as it will be more important to keep their marketing department (often the agency responsible for payment) happier than a solitary contractor.

But the point of an umbrella is to act as an employer for the contractor - an employer would be obliged to pay their staff regardless of the status of their contracts with their clients. As an example I used to work for a utility provider who had a contract with BT, I worked on the BT projects.. they lost the contract with BT and there was a massive dispute about outstanding money... but I still got paid.

I cant see what the point of an umbrella with this clause in the contract is.