Springboard Umbrella is a Warrington based straightforward PAYE umbrella company. They currently do not charge any fees for their services and you can read more information about this either directly from their website or by reading our interview with the Managing Director. Springboard are fully audited and approved by Professional Passport and their website has a clean design and is very easy to use. It has recently been updated to contain a lot of fresh information and you will be able to use their online calculator from the website, giving you an approximate pay illustration. 

Our experience

Springboard Umbrella are a very professional and friendly company, the people that we have spoken with were always willing to help and prepared to go that extra mile for us. The staff member that we dealt with on our call into the Springboard Umbrella offices asked us if we knew anything about umbrella companies and then kindly explained that we would be employed by them on an overarching employment contract which would give us some benefits. Namely, the ability to claim expenses. It was then explained to us that any expenses we claim are not reimbursed to us they are in fact used to offset our tax liabilities.

Springboard Umbrella currently provides a free umbrella service with no hidden charges whatsoever. The two main expenses that can be claimed through Springboard Umbrella are travel and subsistence, although you will be able to claim for additional expenses such as subscriptions and accommodation. Springboard Umbrella give contractors a daily allowance for subsistence (meals) claims and it will depend on the number of hours you spend away from your home as to the amount that can be claimed. They did tell us that this is a completely unreceipted expense. All of your expenses can be claimed online through their secure web portal.

We were then asked what agency we worked through and Springboard Umbrella took our email address so that they could send us an email with further information.

If you choose to use the Springboard Umbrella service you will become a full employee of theirs and will be entitled to full employee rights such as holiday and sick pay. Your holiday pay will be paid out within your weekly or monthly payroll and you will be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). You will also be covered by their standard business insurances. We requested an email from Springboard Umbrella with further information about their services but this email has never been received.

Overall umbrelladetective.com found Springboard Umbrella to be very personable and approachable; they were willing to answer all of our questions and had a good understanding of the market. The disappointing thing is that we were not qualified at any point throughout our call to see if we were able to benefit from their umbrella service and hardly any questions were asked of us. There was no mention of a personal salary illustration and no email has ever been received from them. On a more positive note, they provide their umbrella service completely free of charge and have the compliance certificates to prove they are doing things the right way. In our opinion you have nothing to lose by giving them a try.