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It looks like First Umbrella have accepted that their kick back scheme with Allen Lane is somewhere between horrendous and illegal as they have just cancelled it and are going to pay me full rate from now on. Thanks to everyone on here for your great advice.
I am obvs happy to be getting the extra money but think there are still questions to be answered here, like why First Umbrella thought this was ok until last week and now have decided it is not. And whether this is just a short term reprieve until they come up with a new scam scheme.
But don't want to upset things now I have a £150 a week payrise. And by the time they bring in a new scheme I should be in a new contract.
It looks like First Umbrella have accepted that their kick back scheme with Allen Lane is somewhere between horrendous and illegal as they have just cancelled it and are going to pay me full rate from now on. Thanks to everyone on here for your great advice.
I am obvs happy to be getting the extra money but think there are still questions to be answered here, like why First Umbrella thought this was ok until last week and now have decided it is not. And whether this is just a short term reprieve until they come up with a new scam scheme.
But don't want to upset things now I have a £150 a week payrise. And by the time they bring in a new scheme I should be in a new contract.
So given the fact they know its wrong and given that they (probably) haven't changed your contract will they be paying you that £30 for all the days it was illegally deducted.
You may not want to ask that question now but I would definitely keep it in the back pocket for the day after your final invoice is paid....
So given the fact they know its wrong and given that they (probably) haven't changed your contract will they be paying you that £30 for all the days it was illegally deducted.
You may not want to ask that question now but I would definitely keep it in the back pocket for the day after your final invoice is paid....
End of contract, treat the illegally deducted money as a debt, and then chase it. (Get legal advice first!)
Getting a decent rate now and don't want to upset things, ie if I threaten legal action now they may end the contract immediately. Not losing anything by waiting till the contract ends before I kick off about the dodgy deductions.
(PS. The TUC got it wrong, only photographic and modelling agencies are now included in the Regs, other media agencies are still out.)
Note the bold bit at the bottom..
Hi cojak,
You seem knowledgable about this issue. This is the reply I got from the dept. of business when I told them about this act.
"Umbrella companies are not covered by the above legislation, and as such we cannot look into the issue of them deducting £150 per week. However, it may help if I provide you with some background on how umbrella companies operate. If you are employed by an umbrella company, any money paid to them by an employment business becomes the umbrella company’s income. From that they deduct any statutory deduction, such as employers NI and the Apprenticeship Levy. The remainder is then treated as your income, from which statutory deductions are made as well as any fee that they charge for processing pay."
Do they have a point or are they just fobbing me off? Looks like Allen Lane have found a loop hole to rip people off in a legal way huh?
@force11 have you had any luck with your complaint? I've hit a brick wall. Trying to decide who else I can complain to.
It looks like First Umbrella have accepted that their kick back scheme with Allen Lane is somewhere between horrendous and illegal as they have just cancelled it and are going to pay me full rate from now on. Thanks to everyone on here for your great advice.
I am obvs happy to be getting the extra money but think there are still questions to be answered here, like why First Umbrella thought this was ok until last week and now have decided it is not. And whether this is just a short term reprieve until they come up with a new scam scheme.
But don't want to upset things now I have a £150 a week payrise. And by the time they bring in a new scheme I should be in a new contract.
You are lucky. Also this is an Allen lane thing - not the fault of the umbrella company. Allen lane give the money (your salary) to the umbrella company, and the umbrella company only can only pay what they have. How it works is allen lane give a pot of money to first and they pay you from that. What seems to have happened here is that you queried it, first umbrella decided they didn't want to be part of allen lane's dodgy scheme anymore and partake in their scam, and they told allen lane to either stop the practice or find another umbrella company. Allen lane seem to be the ones who have backed down and are now not taking their £150/wk cut, so well done. I hope the government investigates these guys. What they are doing is really bad.
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