Pure Education – Teacher Recruitment

The Agency Workers Regulations were introduced on the 1st of October 2011, to ensure the protection of temporary agency workers by applying the “principles of equal treatment in terms of basic working and employment conditions”.

This means that agency workers are entitled to equal treatment as if they had been directly recruited to the job. In the UK this is subject to the completion of a 12-week qualifying period of continuous work with the same hirer in the same role.

The AWR regulations apply to all temporary agency workers who are supplied by a temporary work agency to work for, and under the supervision and direction of, a hirer.

The entitlement is based on a comparable employee, i.e. a teacher compared to a permanent employed teacher or a teaching assistant compared to a permanent employed teaching assistant. That means there must be someone doing the same job or broadly similar work to you, usually at the same school/academy trust (but may be located elsewhere if still within the remits of the organisation). This entitlement applies if you are working part-time as well as full-time.

Visit our FAQs page for more information.

The Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system is a method of paying Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs). The employer will deduct these taxes from your wages and will send them directly to HMRC, before paying you your net salary. 

Similarly to agency PAYE, when you register with an umbrella company, they will become your employer and will process your salary via PAYE. That means that  deductions for income tax and NI Contributions will also be deducted and sent directly to HMRC.

When you work through an umbrella company, your employment continues from contract to contract, meaning that although you may have multiple contracts with different end clients and though different agencies, you’ll only have one employer.

Unlike agency PAYE, umbrella companies will retain a margin from the money received from the employment agency or end client to cover the cost of their administrative duties; such as processing payroll and raising invoices. The margin is deducted before tax is processed. The Umbrella system may mean that other deductions may also apply.

Pure Education's prefered pay method is via agency PAYE, however, if you are currently registered with an umbrella company and feel that the system benefits you, we will process your payments via your prefered service provider.

IR35 became law in 2000 via the Finance Act, and is another name for the off-payroll working rules.

The off-payroll working or IR35 rules are designed to stop contractors working as ‘disguised employees’, by taxing them at a rate similar to employment, and it affects all contractors who do not meet HMRC’s definition of self-employed.

There are three key factors taken into consideration when assessing a contractor’s working arrangement to determine whether they are ‘inside IR35’ or ‘outside IR35’.

In simple terms, here are the three key IR35 status indicators and what they mean:

1. Right of Substitution

Substitution is the ability of a contractor providing a contracted service to supply a replacement contractor to carry out the service under the contract.  

2. Mutuality of Obligations (MOO)

MOO means that in order for an employment relationship to exist, there must be an obligation on a work-provider to provide work and an obligation on the individual to carry out the work.  

3. Supervision & Control

Control looks at whether a worker is truly independent when working under a contract between it and the end-client. The more factors showing independence of work behaviour, choice of how and when to work etc., indicate a scenario where IR35 does not apply.

For more information, you can have a look at our IR35 status guides or read HMRC’s guide to determining employment status here.
 

What do ‘inside IR35’ and ‘outside IR35’ mean?

• Inside IR35

If you are determined to be ‘inside IR35’ this means you do not meet HMRC’s definition of self-employed. You are considered an employee of the end client and are therefore are subject to PAYE, requiring you to ensure that you are paying the appropriate taxes.

It is widely accepted that supply teachers are within the definition of "inside IR35" and therefore not able to work in a school setting as a supply teacher via a PSC (Personal Services Conpany) or Limited Company.

Find out more about what being inside IR35 means here. 

• Outside IR35

If you are determined to be ‘outside IR35’ this means you meet HMRC’s definition of self-employed. You are considered a genuine business and can operate and be engaged with as an independent contractor. You would be paid gross for any work completed.

Key Information Document (KID)

Key Information Document was introduced in an effort to improve pay transparency for agency workers and offer important information about their assignments.

It's the responsibility of employment businesses to provide agency employees with a KID beforer the start of the engagement. The documents should outline the following:

• Name of the worker.
 
• Contract type.
 
• Start date and working hours.
 
• Identity of the employment business.
 
• Who will pay wages to the worker.
 
• Statutory deductions (for example tax and national insurance).
 
• Any fees for goods or services.
 
• Any other employee benefits.