Umbrella companies and pension providers

[cojak]

Pendragon as in the Umbrella company Pendragon?

*sucks teeth...*

[Spangled]

I am moving from my LTD Co to an Umbrella as new client will not allow a PSC. I currently pay in to a Standard Life SIPP so went to PayStream, however they will only allow the following pension plans:

• Aegon
• AJ Bell
• Aviva
• BestInvest
• Hargreaves Lansdown
• Legal & General
• Old Mutual Wealth
• Prudential
• Royal London
• Scottish Widows
• Transact

On further investigation, Pendragon will allow any Pension Plan, including Standard Life, so I have passed on to my IFA on how to progress the salary sacrifice arrangement with Pendragon and Standard Life.

Also very interested in the answer (if any) to this question. My pension is with Standard Life so facing exactly the same scenario.

[Spellbinder]

One other thing to check on is the situation with signatures.....I chose an Umbrella after checking that they dealt with my existing SIPP provider and the answer was yes....However after several months of faffing around the SIPP provider won't accept an electronic signature and wants a wet signature. Umbrella company say they are all working remotely due to the Covid situation and can't provide a wet signature so I am still pension contribution less at the moment as they can't agree between themselves....So would be worth checking if you don't want to end up in the same boat !!

[Tynos]

Paystream have been excellent. Now starting second 6 month contract with them.
I get monthly salary sacrifice transferred to my old SIPP.
PAYE is weekly, and payslip lists pension contribution. Very clear.

[newbieunderthesun]

Payment and Pension Salary Sacrifice towards End of FY

Paystream have been excellent. Now starting second 6 month contract with them.
I get monthly salary sacrifice transferred to my old SIPP.
PAYE is weekly, and payslip lists pension contribution. Very clear.

Could you tell how did the payments and pension salary sacrifice work with paystream for march/april. Trying to figure out my gross pay until 5th April 2021 and hence the pension contribution per day. Looks like pay is weekly, but the pension contribution is monthly. So, I am not very sure how many days could be considered as this years pay and how many days of them as pension contribution for this year. Paystream have been very helpful, but I am still a bit confused until I see a working example from someone.

[Acme Thunderer]

Could you tell how did the payments and pension salary sacrifice work with paystream for march/april. Trying to figure out my gross pay until 5th April 2021 and hence the pension contribution per day. Looks like pay is weekly, but the pension contribution is monthly. So, I am not very sure how many days could be considered as this years pay and how many days of them as pension contribution for this year. Paystream have been very helpful, but I am still a bit confused until I see a working example from someone.

Not sure I fully understand your question.

But in my case Paystream made a Pension Payment to my SIPP on the 3rd April 2020. This included all outstanding pensions deductions made to that point including that day's pay. The 3rd April was the last payday of the Tax Year. I don't think you should count days in the tax year, rather what tax year the pay dates fall into as the determining factor.

[measterbrook]

Not sure I fully understand your question.

But in my case Paystream made a Pension Payment to my SIPP on the 3rd April 2020. This included all outstanding pensions deductions made to that point including that day's pay. The 3rd April was the last payday of the Tax Year. I don't think you should count days in the tax year, rather what tax year the pay dates fall into as the determining factor.

For pension contributions contribution limits, it is the day it is paid to the pension provider, not the date of the payroll. This may be an issue for Umbrella company "employees" if they roll up all pensions in payslips over a month and pay sometime in the first week of the following month, meaning the March pension deductions could fall into one of 2 tax years. Really difficult if you are close to the limit.

[Tynos]

Paystream Umbrella - SIPP

I started with Paystream in March but they pay Pension salary sacrifice on the 19th of the following month and it usually takes at least 2 days to get into my SIPP.
So my SIPP didn't receive any contribution in 2019-2020 tax year.
Since I setup my SIPP a few years ago I can use spare allocation from previous 2-3 years, so I don't have to worry about going over the annual limit next April.

[Tessam]

Orange Genie

I've just been going through the same thing. From the FCSA website, the following companies will allow salary sacrifice into your own existing pension fund:

Sapphire
Champion
Unified
Numbermill
Carrington
Brookson [Correction: Would only pay into their own with Aegon, but as my own pension is also with Aegon they said they could pay into that]
Nasa
Pendragon
Paystream
Orange Genie
Liberty Bishop
Fore Two


If it's salary sacrifice, yes, it's taken from gross.

Started trying to administer SIPP with Orange Genie in February...very new to them, took them 2 months to work it out. Salary sacrifice paid to Barclays however I have to send signed Additional Cont form scan for the amount every month. Efficient :-)

[willss3608]

pension

I'm looking for an umbrella that will be reasonably flexible in changing pension contributions, for example on a quarterly basis, and it does seem there are significant differences in the stance each umbrella is taking on this point.

I've only been looking at a limited subset of the list, due to my agency restricting the umbrellas they will work with. However, I can report that Paystream will let you pay into your own SIPP, and use carry forward, BUT they told me they would only let me alter my contribution rates once per year! They seemed very touchy when I pressed them on this point. I can understand they want to avoid extra administration, but this is a red flag for me.

In contrast, Giant will also let you pay into your own SIPP, and use carry forward, and seem a bit more flexible about changing contribution rates, saying "it's up to the pension provider".

Some others have indicated that changing contributions every quarter is reasonable, but they won't entertain changing them more frequently than that.


In conclusion, before signing up with an umbrella, you definitely want to confirm your specific pension arrangements including how often they'll let you change the contributions (maybe also the scheme too).

z.

Could you please recommend an umbrella which allows change in pension contribution without restriction. ?