Ok, you have all heard the NSTN tell you, time and time again, how you must not be paid through an umbrella company, that you should be paid directly by your agency (with just the traditional Income Tax, National Insurance and Employee Pension contribution removed).

However, for those of you who have asked to be paid directly and the agency insists that you have to be paid through an umbrella company, please read this.

While setting up Proxi, the not-for-profit cooperative supply service, the NSTN used People Group Services (PGS) to process the payroll. It is traditional payroll, with just Income Tax, NI and Pension removed. However, we keep telling them stories about how supply teachers are ripped off by umbrella companies and they listened. People Group came to us with a new service which is, I think, the best umbrella arrangement I’ve ever seen. Not as good as traditional pay arrangements but getting nearer to that.

If you are currently paid through an umbrella company or have been told you have to be paid through umbrella arrangements, the NSTN would propose going through or changing to People Group. 

Why? This is why:

People Group said that, for NSTN members, they would cap the charge rate at 4% of your weekly pay or £9 per week, whichever is the lower. Also, you’ll get the following advantages:

 Full employment rights and protections – a contract of service, not a contract for services (if you want the know the difference, ask Stuart Irving, the NSTN chief negotiator: he’ll bore you senseless about it)

 Easy access to statutory pay (Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay etc.) – no quibble acceptance (which is one reason we chose them to process the Proxi payroll).

 Holiday pay accrued & automatically disbursed when not working/holidays, maximizing tax efficiency (see article in the Featured section and the calculator)

 Access to CPD courses, including essential safeguarding training (£10 up front but you get that back after 4 weeks of work through PGS, so essentially free)

 People Group will pay you subscription to the National Supply Teachers Network Association (worth £4.50 a month)

 PGS will contribute fully to your workplace pension (NEST), so you don’t have to.

All of these savings will contribute to you having a larger net pay in your bank each week. If you are lucky enough to be on £150 a day (just short of M1), then after a full 5 day week, your wage would be £750. By PGS paying your full pension:

You will make a saving of £11.44. Not huge but over a full year (39 weeks, yes we know you probably won’t work all the weeks) that could be an extra £446.16 in your bank account.

As we said at the beginning of the article, it is not a substitute for being paid directly but it is significantly better than other umbrella companies we’ve ever come.

To switch from your current umbrella company to PGS:  https://portal.peoplegroupservices.com/join/nstn

Once you have registered with PGS, you will then need to let your agency know that you want to be paid through PGS and not through your current umbrella company.

PGS will even pay your subscription/membership to the NSTN Association, they like our work so much.

We hope those of you who are paid through umbrella companies (14% in a recent NSTN poll) take advantage of this offer and take home more of your hard earned wages.