Saferec Problems?

[WalterWhite]

Hi All

Not been on for a while as stepped over to the dark side of permanent work!

A friend of mine uses an umbrella company (I won't name them) and he was told this week they are no longer accredited by Saferec because of an issue with lost data.

His agency are telling him he has to use one of the 67 umbrella companies on the Saferec list, but he's a bit concerned about this now.

Has anybody else heard anything?

[cojak]

Saferec is a compliance company for recruitment industries and are in the firing line because of Honest Payroll Ltd , an umbrella that went into administration owing HMRC a lot of VAT.

It's all a bit messy as some commentators claim that had HPL gone into administration after April this year, agencies would have face 'significant financial exposure' because of JSL rules. Saferec says that JSL only refers to tax and NI, not VAT.

But I think that's all missing the point. What exactly is the point of Saferec in the first place? Honest Payroll's accounts were overdue from August 2025 - what on earth were Saferec doing over that time?

Anyway, I can't find any info on lost data, so my advice to your friend is to ignore Saferec as a company - look at the company accounts for the listed umbrellas that he's considering. That's far more important.