GAP Pay

[Bemused and confused]

Hi All

I would love to get some feedback from other users about their experience with gap pay. I was with Giant for some time and they introduced GAP pay in which they said they would pay eight hours a week of my pay. However what they dont tell you is it is only for two weeks and only paid at minimum wage. So from a rate of £300 a day to £39 a week. I would have received more money by signing on. I left Giant and it has taken them nearly three months to pay me £39 quid. Is this the case with other umbrella firms (i suspect it is).

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

All compliant umbrella companies have to have provision for pay between assignments in order to operate an over-arching contract of employment as it demonstrates continuity of employment - did you/they terminate your employment after 2 weeks and that's why it wasn't paid for a longer period or was there another reason?

[Bemused and confused]

Hi Lisa

No i terminated my employment with them after being told they only pay it for two weeks. The fact that it is less than contribution based JSA was not made clear as i would have been better of signing on between contracts

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

The amount that's payable as 'gap pay' will be based on the fixed element of the contract of employment (usually minimum wage/living wage) so you can never expect to receive your full salary when you are not on assignment. The reason for this is simply that the umbrella company would go out of business in a very short period of time as the gap pay comes from their margin - unless the umbrella company was deducting an amount from you to be paid back when you were between assignments? I don't know in your case why it would only be paid for 2 weeks but it should be detailed in your contract of employment - happy to have a look at it for you - lisa@contractorumbrella.com

[TheFaQQer]

Hi Lisa

No i terminated my employment with them after being told they only pay it for two weeks. The fact that it is less than contribution based JSA was not made clear as i would have been better of signing on between contracts

If you resign from your employment at the end of each contract, can you claim JSA?

And if you do, remember to make sure that you account for your expenses correctly if you are going to only have one contract through each umbrella.

[TheFaQQer]

If you resign from your employment at the end of each contract, can you claim JSA?

Answered my own question - according to this site, if you make yourself voluntarily unemployed then you may lose the right to claim any benefits for up to 26 weeks:

People leaving work are treated as having made themselves voluntarily unemployed. This applies if you resign, walk out or are sacked for misconduct... Unless you can disprove it, you face a sanction of up to 26 weeks without any benefit at all. Your case is referred to an Adjudication Officer who decides if it's fair and, if so, how long the sanction applies for. They will write to your employers for their side of the story. During this period you will be on no benefit, or reduced benefit in cases of hardship

I wonder how our resident expert gets around that?

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

Answered my own question - according to this site, if you make yourself voluntarily unemployed then you may lose the right to claim any benefits for up to 26 weeks:



I wonder how our resident expert gets around that?

What do you mean TF?

[TheFaQQer]

What do you mean TF?

That one particular poster makes themselves redundant at the end of each contract so that he can go and claim JSA. But if you voluntarily leave your job, then you shouldn't be able to claim without an investigation about why you left your job.

I'd guess that the confusion arises because the JSA staff need to talk to your employer, and most posters operating via a limited company structure aren't employees, and can argue that they didn't leave their job but there was no more work to do because of the end of a contract.

That argument isn't going to work if you were an employee of an umbrella company, though - you were employed and chose to resign from that employment. If you then proceed to claim JSA then they should be asking why you resigned voluntarily from your employment and stopping you from claiming.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

That one particular poster makes themselves redundant at the end of each contract so that he can go and claim JSA. But if you voluntarily leave your job, then you shouldn't be able to claim without an investigation about why you left your job.

I'd guess that the confusion arises because the JSA staff need to talk to your employer, and most posters operating via a limited company structure aren't employees, and can argue that they didn't leave their job but there was no more work to do because of the end of a contract.

That argument isn't going to work if you were an employee of an umbrella company, though - you were employed and chose to resign from that employment. If you then proceed to claim JSA then they should be asking why you resigned voluntarily from your employment and stopping you from claiming.

See what you mean You're right, yes, all rules which apply to any employer also apply to an umbrella company so there should be no claim for JSA if the worker has voluntarily left his employment.