As a self employed contractor you might be forgiven the world of workplace benefits is off the market,but you couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes your end clients benefits scheme will probably be off the table,but by working through an umbrella company that you might get access to a host of employee benefits which not only make contracting easier but really give back some of the fees that you pay to the umbrella each week.

• Employee benefits come in many shapes and sizes but they often include:
• Public Liability Insurance Cover (roughly #3.84 per week)
• Professional Indemnity Insurance Cover (roughly #5.19 per week)
• Perkbox Rewards (roughly #6.09 per week)

Cycle to work schemes

If you are paying an umbrella company 25 per week,then it is important to cancel that cost against some of the benefits you’d otherwise need to pay for from your pocket. Read on for a breakdown of these benefits and how they can financially benefit the contractors that get them.

Public Liability Cover — normally #200 per annum As a contractor working through a Limited Company or as a self employed worker,to be able to measure onsite and fulfil your contract you are often required to provide your client with evidence of your general liability insurance. Public liability insurance protects, you, your client and their end customer in the event you cause injury or loss to somebody in the course of performing your role (although not through your real resulting work). Say by way of example you’re in IT and you are building a piece of software.

In the course of making this program,you lose the memory stick that houses the information on it. In this event it is your public liability insurance which foots the bill for the loss brought on by a client as opposed to you personally,meaning a blip in an otherwise ideal career won’t cost you a residence. Public liability insurance is not compulsory in the UK,but it’s frequently a minimum requirement to engage with a client.

Though your job might take nine months to finish and the final result would be covered under your mandatory professional indemnity insurance cover,some mishap you will encounter in the course of the nine months you take to reach the final result will not be. Professional Indemnity Insurance – on average #270 per annum As stated previously,unlike public liability insurance,professional indemnity insurance is a legal requirement. As an expert,you’d expect that each bit of work you do would be topnotch but sometimes things can go wrong and in the event this is a result of your job,this is the insurance which will cover the bill.

Say by way of example you’re a railway engineer,and also in the course of your inspections you overlook a faulty signal,which subsequently causes an accident. As a contractor you might be financially accountable for the consequences of that mishap and as such unless you have professional indemnity insurance you might wind up footing the bill. Obviously,no one wants to evermake a claim on their insurance but much like taking out car insurance,as a responsible contractor you need to ensure if the worst happen,you are covered. Perkbox (and other employee perk schemes) — a minimum of 317 per annum Perkbox is the UK’s top employee reward scheme and it is becoming ever more popular amongst high end umbrellas which are looking to provide a bit more back to their faithful customers.

The perks are fairly straight forward,with 90% consisting of money off vouchers at major retailers for example: Exclusive Odeon,London Eye & National Attraction Offers 5 percent off at Ikea 8 percent off Just Eat 8 percent off at M&S 10% off at Debenhams 10% off at Charles Tyrwhitt 15% off at New Look

However,There are a Couple of big winners that you can benefit from as soon as you join your umbrella company such as: 20% off EE monthly telephone bills (worth #96) Free Mobile Phone insurance (worth #179) 12 Free Coffees from Café Nero (worth #42) Limit the plethora of different discounts on offer,these three offers alone will net you a benefit of #6.09 per week. Employee benefits can add up fast Should you combine both contractor insurances and perkbox,the ordinary contractor on 50,000 per annum can expect to benefit to the tune of around #15 per week. Compare it to an umbrella fee of #25 per week and net weekly cost is really only #10. To learn more on umbrella companies,the benefits they provide and how these will affect your net take home after tax,compare umbrella companies on the internet now.

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