If you’re new to umbrella company employment, it’s only natural that you will have questions about how umbrella companies work. With this in mind, here are the answers to the most common questions asked by new umbrella company employees.
What is my relationship to Epayme?”
We’ve mentioned employment a few times already, and there’s a good reason for that. When you join our umbrella company you become our employee and we become your employer. From our legal responsibilities, to our moral obligations and our duty of care, we provide everything you would expect from an employer, and more than many traditional employers do. However, as an umbrella company employee you are still responsible for sourcing your own contracting work, and you still get to decide which assignments you accept. This gives you the flexibility and autonomy that is so important to many contractors, along with the security and benefits of genuine employment.
Do you charge a joining or leaving fee?
No, you wouldn’t usually expect to be charged a fee when you start or leave employment, and the same is true when you join or leave Epayme.
How do you calculate my pay?
As a compliant umbrella company, we generate our income by charging our employees to agencies and end clients at a profit. The umbrella company’s margin is often incorrectly described as a fee charged to the employee, but this is not the case:
- The agency/client pays us the agreed assignment rate for your work
- We make a small margin and cover our costs of employing you (including statutory calculations such as Employee’s NI, Apprenticeship Levy, Holiday pay, etc.) from this amount
- The remaining amount is your gross pay for the period
This question is most often asked when contractors are trying to work out what their take home pay will be as our employee. The best way to answer that is to ask us for a pay illustration, so we can give you an accurate idea of what you’ll be paid.
Any employment costs and our margin are calculated and retained from our income before we arrive at your gross pay, these costs are not deductions from your pay.
What is your margin?
This is dependent on the agency you are working with.
Where can I find a Key Information Document?
Since April 2020, agencies are required to provide you with a Key Information Document that will demonstrate how your pay is to be calculated from the umbrella company’s income. This should be provided to you by your agency
Am I entitled to statutory payments?
Yes – as you are employed by Epayme, you will have access to statutory rights just like any other employee in the UK. These rights include Holiday pay, Sick pay, Maternity/ Paternity pay, etc.
How does umbrella holiday pay work and how much do you have available?
Holiday pay is accrued as you work. You will see a deduction from our income on your pay documents to cover holiday pay, and your accrued holiday pay is available to claim whenever you choose.
Do take leave throughout the year and remember to claim your holiday pay – you are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year.
Each time you are paid, your pay document will show your accrued holiday pay balance. This is the amount of money you have available to claim before deductions for tax and National Insurance. Some of our employees opt to have their holiday pay paid to them immediately, as it accrues. If this applies to you, you will see your holiday pay being paid to you each time we pay you, and the accrued figure will stay at zero.
Please inform us if you want to accrue your holiday pay or have it paid each week – this will mean you have no holiday pay to claim when you have time off, and you will need to make alternative provision to cover your holidays, we strongly advise that you do still take time off.
To request holiday pay or make changes, please email your request to holiday@epayme.co.uk at least one month in advance to ensure your time off is approved.
Be sure let us know how much of your holiday pay you would like to claim.
Will I receive a P45 & P60?
If you or your agency wish to leave our employment, we will issue a P45 after your last payment. Your P60 will be issued at the end of the Tax year, before the end of May following the 6th April, if you are within our employment on this date.
Will I receive a payslip?
We’ll let you know by SMS/Text as soon as possible on the day that we’ll be making a payment to you. Payments clear either later the same day, the following morning or after 2 days, depending on your particular agency. We’ll make this clear to you during your registration and induction process when you join.
You’ll then receive an e-mail notification when your pay documents are available to download from your ePayme portal. We do not email payslips for your personal data protection.
How and where do I submit my time sheets?
Unless advised otherwise, please submit your time sheets directly to your recruitment agency.
How does Pension work?
As a UK employer, we are required to provide a workplace pension for our employees. We must auto-enrol all qualifying employees, and contribute to the scheme using Smart Pension. Minimum contributions at the time of writing (2024/25) are 8% of qualifying earnings, a minimum 3% of which must be an employer contribution, plus 5% of your own contribution. So, if you’re aged between 22 and state pension age, and earning over the earnings trigger of £10,000 a year, we must enrol you onto our workplace pension scheme.
This will happen after the deferment period of 90 days. You can ask to be enrolled straight away rather than waiting for the deferment period to end if you prefer and if you are eligible.
Your pension account can be accessed through your Epayme Rewards portal or app.
How do I access the Epayme Rewards?
You can download the app from your chosen app store by searching for “Epayme” or alternatively you can access Epayme Rewards through a browser. The first time we email you, we’ll send you instructions so you can register and log in to Epayme Rewards.
Please check your junk/spam folder for this. Since our benefits portal is outsourced, please note the email sending these details will be from no-reply@lwmengage.co.uk.
You’ll need to log in to access your pay documents as well as your other employee benefits. The first time you log in, you’ll need to register. Please click “register” on the log in screen and follow the instructions.
What if I work through more than one agency?
We can employ you to work with multiple agencies. Being paid through one provider has a Tax advantage as we would hold your Primary Tax Code.
If you’d like us to employ and pay you to work through multiple agencies, we can arrange this for you. Simply confirm that the agencies are willing to accept us as your provider, and we’ll take care of the rest by contacting them on your behalf to set everything up.
What is Trust ID?
We are partnered with TrustID for the verification of our contractors’ identities and right to work documents. This can be accessed via a link sent to you upon your registration, where you will instructed to upload a picture your ID and a selfie of your face.
Please note: TrustID does not accept British/Irish passports that are expired.
If this is the case, please email admin@epayme.co.uk with a copy of your birth certificate and proof of your National Insurance (e.g. Payslip, P45, P60, etc.)
For contractors on Student Visa’s, please use the above email to send a copy of your enrolment letter or a letter of your student status.
Is our service compliant?
The welfare of workers and contractors is our top priority and influences every aspect of our business operations. We are dedicated to driving progress and evolving our services to ensure the best outcomes for our contractors in regards with ever-changing legislation and the changes within the industry.
Epayme is fully committed to compliance and continuous improvement. Our Professional Passport accreditation is a testament to this obligation, and we are also proud to be recognised as APSCo Trusted Partners.