It’s no secret that the UK education system relies heavily on supply teaching agencies to source and deploy high quality teaching staff at short notice. Over 2 million teaching days were lost to sickness during academic year 2016/17, and most of those days will have been covered by supply teachers.
Supply Teacher's Guide to your Personal Doctor. Click here to download >>
Being employed by an umbrella company remains the best option for most supply teachers, but all umbrella companies are not equal. The industry still contains unscrupulous companies who are willing to exploit supply teachers and put them, and any recruiter working with them, at risk of investigation, prosecution and financial ruin at the hands of HMRC.
Mention IR35 in certain circles and you’re likely to tap into an unexpected world of anxiety and frustration. The spectre of private sector reform is looming, it seems, over any business that engages contractors and the memory of public sector chaos is not far away, feeding the fear. While reform in the private sector may not yet be inevitable, it is clear that immediate action is necessary. Clients and contractors alike need to prepare, if they are to weather the coming storm.
A lot has been written already about potential IR35 reform in the private sector, and over the next few months we’re going to see more as the recruitment industry holds its collective breath. Whether it comes in April 2019 or waits another year, many believe reform is inevitable, and it’s likely to look very similar to the public sector reform of 2017.
This means private-sector end-clients will be made responsible for assessing the IR35 status of any contractor they hire, and they’ll be liable if their decision is found to be incorrect.
Saving for retirement as a contractor can be challenging. In fact, one survey conducted in 2017 suggested as few as 27% of contractors had a pension. That means nearly three quarters were not saving for retirement.
Contractor's Guide to Workplace Pensions. Click here to download >>
