Umbrella companies and the contractors “left in limbo”
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2020
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
650,000 people work as contractors in a wide range of jobs across the UK – supply teachers, IT engineers, health care workers. But some of them have told Money Box they’ve been left in limbo by umbrella companies who say they need more clarity from the government before they can decide to furlough them or not. Issues about how much the contractors would get, how much holiday pay they’d be owed and what the industry will do if they don’t get any more guidance from the government means huge financial stress and worry for all those involved. Guest: Julia Kermode, Chief Executive, The Freelancer & Contractor Services Association.
There's a glimmer of hope for cash savers as NS&I abandons plans for major interest rate cuts to its variable rate savings products which were due to happen on May 1. Anna Bowes Co-Founder of Savings Champion also rounds up what’s happening elsewhere in the cash savings market.
We look at ways to safely access cash for people who are self-isolating and relying on relatives or volunteers to do their shopping for them. Guest: Helen Saxon, Banking Editor MoneySavingExpert
Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Producer: Charmaine Cozier Editor: Emma Rippon
Transcript
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| 0:46.3 | Hello, today on Moneybox, as savings rates continue to fall, |
| 0:49.4 | we look at one savings place that has cancelled its cuts. |
| 0:53.7 | How can you safely access cash if you can't get to a bank or cash machine if you're self-isolating at home? |
| 0:56.2 | And if you give to one of the many coronavirus-related online appeals, how much of the money actually reaches the charity? |
| 1:03.1 | And how do you set up a giving site yourself? |
| 1:06.2 | But first, some of the 650,000 people who work across the UK through agencies, normally called |
| 1:13.1 | nowadays umbrella companies, have told Moneybox they've been left in limbo by the government's |
| 1:18.2 | job retention scheme. |
| 1:19.4 | Now, you'll recall that scheme allows companies to send employees home on what is called |
| 1:24.4 | furlough, pay them 80% of their salary up to a maximum £2,500 a month, |
| 1:30.9 | which HMRC will then reimburse. Now applications for those grants opened on Monday. In the first |
| 1:37.1 | four days, half a million employers applied for grants worth £4. billion pounds on behalf of nearly four million workers |
| 1:47.5 | who otherwise may have been laid off. It should mean that firms can restart quickly when restrictions |
| 1:53.5 | are eased, but many contractors say they are not being included. A reporter Dan Whitworth has the |
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