Is it just me...

[brollyman]

If you are struggling to get a particular tax question answered, PM me and I'll take it up on your behalf.
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How about you answer this one.

Now that Parasol own Orange & Gold and because you have moved all the umbrella contractors from O&G into Parasol leaving the PSC's, could this mean that O&G might be seen as an MSC ?

If so if does this expose the Parasol Group ?

Keen to know your thoughts.

Jill x

Parasol do not own Orange And Gold! There is simply now an agreement between us and O&G that we will take their contractors who were on the C-Pro scheme and migrate them over to our NetPay Xtra arrangement. Their Limited Company offering has not changed.

The decision to raise our fees was not taken lightly and has been based on a combination of factors: We now offer a massive insurance package totalling £21million, we offer a guaranteed minimum hours contract to all of our contractors so the increase in NMW also puts upward pressure on fees. We are a business and as such have to make a profit which can be re-invested to improve service and evolve our offering. What is important to bear in mind is that we have only ever offered the same product which has evolved over time so none of our contractors have been affected by changes in legislation - unlike some other providers I could mention....

[Frantic Chicken]

Do you offer a fee structure that does not include insurance cover at £21m as I know that I would not need this mouch cover? I would therefore be paying extra for something that I do not need.

I am still unsure of the reason why the fee has increased because of the increase in NMW?

[pisces]

I used them before they went I went LTD and felt the same. The service was getting worse and the cost went up something like 3 times in 18 months.

Either way go LTD. It's much better not having a third party playing with your money. 80 pound a month is far too much to produce an automated payslip and a BACS transfer. My accountant does a whole load more than that and for less money.

[Svalbaard]

Yawn...

Thought I should respond to this one...

Yes, Parasol have increased their charges for the second time in two years. The last increase was 10 months ago and the last one was 14 months before that. An email was sent to all contractors explaining the reason for the increase which is mainly due to the new insurance package and increases in NMW etc. So far, there has been negligable negative feedback from contractors and the increase has not had any impact on the number of leavers. I'm not going to blindly defend Parasol on the service issues but I will say that our business volumes increased hugely with other providers going through sticky times and their contractors coming over to Parasol. Resources have been put in place to deal with the increased business volumes that the demise of P4 has caused and hopefully your experiences will be much better now!

If you are struggling to get a particular tax question answered, PM me and I'll take it up on your behalf.

As far as live chat is concerned, I'm not sure why you think it has been offline - there have been no breaks in service this year and I see people using it every day and have done since I came here in April. Once again, PM me and I take your issues up.

Cheers

Nice work for towing the line Brollyman but I think I'll just vote with my feet and take my business elsewhere so I don't have to endure a repeat of the last "support" debacle which was a 2 week wait in response to a fairly straightforward tax enquiry.

And in answer your answer about the live support chat, it was indeed down since February and I have now been told by Parasol that it has now been axed permanently as apparently expecting a contractor to wait 15 minutes on the end of a telephone for a support consultant is deemed more "efficient"?

I'm presuming they mean "profitable" though taking into account the 0870 number.