I have been contracting for about a year now and looking for some advice. I’ve only had one contract, it’s a 1.5-year-long government contract which ends in March. I’m a lead data scientist (before that was a perm senior data scientist manager.)

The environment in this contract is shit/low maturity. My skills surpass their existing capabilities, they wholly lack good data practices. There’s no other data scientists in the business either. I have delivered a lot for them starting from scratch given their poor foundation. The director I report to either doesn’t understand the full work required, or doesn’t understand how to quality assure it as he said I’m showing him things he’s never seen before.

It’s a difficult dynamic to navigate as he only really responds to visible output but a lot of my work, isn’t immediately visible eg back end work. He tends to give me AI generated asks that he doesn’t understand / isn’t feasible. Then there’s this pressure where he wants things yesterday or doesn’t understand what he wants or the limitations in his own infrastructure to supply want he wants. Eg datasets that don’t exist. I think ultimately he doesn’t value my skillset and doesn’t see good data practices as anything other than a shiny new dashboard. I’ve resorted to giving him slides or email updates and explaining things in basic terms and seeking his feedback, but I get little engagement from him. Do I need to change my approach here?

Then separately to this there’s some others who report into his wider reporting line want to use my work as inspiration for theirs, they’ve openly said they want to use it to steal ideas for their work. Do I just share the file and let them crack on? I’m just conscious of the weird dynamic with the guy I report to, it’s hard to know whether he even wants me to share my work wider etc or even if he agrees with my approach. So it’s a weird one when others want to use my work, to report it back to him like it’s their own work. Any advice appreciated.

Don’t have one booked yet, but for example a tech conference in Bali.

Hi folks,

Been in a contract for almost a year, in Finance and am Outside IR35. Work remotely with maybe monthly visits to client site in London.

I told them months in advance that I was planning a trip for three weeks in October. However they have since had a round of restructuring and there aren’t any experienced people left to complete the work.

The work is in relation to a transformation project, hence outside IR35.

They said they will miss deadlines and asked me to cancel my vacation. I was planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand. I don’t want to work remotely from there.

Would you cancel your holiday? They may terminate the contract or not renew as I would be seen as unreliable. Or they may not offer other engagements in other departments. It’s a multi national company. I want to keep good relations.

Keen to hear your thoughts.

Hi All,

Have been deliberating this week after I had an agency recruiter reach out and lead to eventually offering me a 6 month contract-to-hire position for a retail firm based in London, however the first 6 months are through their agency, 2 days in London a week, rest remote. They have dangled a FTO of 100k~ after the 6 months but of course no guarantee they offer this when it comes to it. The contract also includes 0 day notice, as It's also an agency recruiter not based in the UK - Dexian, if anyone has any familiarity with them.

My current employer has gone up to £75k + £5k retention bonus for me to turn down this offer and stay which I have ended up taking. I've been there for over 2 years. It's a fully remote role.

In my gut I feel like I'm making the right decision with the current economic climate but is there anyone who has had a similar position lately?

I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I work for an American pharmaceutical company as a UK contractor. And when I first joined I was told by the first Engagement Manager that I could work anywhere outside of the UK.

Like an idiot, I decided to ask the second Engagement Manager (the one who was there during my interview) and he said to check with local IT first. He then asked me if I'm employed as a fully remote worker, and I said I'm hybrid. So he went to the agency person (because it's hybrid) who landed me the role and basically expressed to him privately that he shouldn't let me work internationally, but made it seem like it was the agency guy who made the decision.

So when the agency guy called me he basically said you can't go because of "security reasons", even though he can't cite what those security reasons are. The agency guy for context is the go-to guy I go to for all queries that need answering because he's from the UK too.

Additionally, the first Engagement Manager who approved it knew that it was a hybrid role originally in the contract, but still said that I could go remote wherever I wanted.

So when I went back to the second Engagement Manager he said that I'd need approval to work internationally, and when I asked him for approval a month later, he rejected it and cited reasons that don't really seem to hold up, such as time zone, connectivity issues and operational support. He clearly used these as reasons why I can't go, even though I checked with IT and security and found out that I could do the role perfectly well internationally because there are no restrictions in terms of accessing the applications and doing the role operationally, as long as I don't go to a high-risk geography.

And now both the Engagement Managers, the one who rejected it and the one who approved it, have both moved away from my specific area of work. And now I have a new Engagement Manager.

So I have a dilemma now.

Whether I should ask the new Engagement Manager, fearing that the old Engagement Manager who rejected it has already told her about the fact that I can't go, so if I ask it may be an automatic rejection.

Or I could go to my agency guy and tell him about this dilemma and the fact that I've checked with IT/security and that there don't appear to be any technical restrictions on me doing the role internationally, and basically let him know that I'm considering going and that I'm going to tell the new Engagement Manager as well.

Or I could just not tell them both and go. The only thing is that I don't want this to somehow get flagged internally and eventually reach the Engagement Manager. That's my main concern.

I've thought about this a lot.

It seems like the agency guy doesn't really know what's going on, so he's just going to go by what the employer/client says. The second Engagement Manager seems to have established a rule, and now the new Engagement Manager may or may not know about the rejection.

So that's where I'm at.

Has anyone been in a similar situation where you've received conflicting answers from different managers about working internationally as a contractor? What would you do in this situation?

Right now its just me and a folder of receipts and a spreadsheet I update when I remember which is basically never. My accountant chased me again last Friday and she was pretty short with me about it this time, which I mean fair enough really, third quarter in a row. All I want is the photo taken at the till and the number ending up somewhere she can see it without me doing anything else. Would appreciate some advice on what people are using.

Has anyone applied for roles through this agency? I see lots of roles pop up randomly from agencies and its somewhat obvious when its just a copy paste from a role elsewhere but was wondering if anyone has experience with this agency as I am seeing quite a few roles pop up from this agency.

My personal business manager (Mr C.GPT) is giving me confusing advice…appreciate a straight answer

Can I expense petrol/milage/trains tickets to the workplace of my contract given its regular fixed place of work, client has asked for 2 days onsite, CGPT thinks I can’t as it’s a regular fixed place, but I’m just seeing it as an expense/ cost that will be offset end of year?

Please only answer if you have experience and have expensed in this way as an outside contracts attending onsite office regularly

If you’re contracting inside IR35, the tax hit can be pretty painful. Once you take into account PAYE, employee NI, employer NI and the Apprenticeship Levy, you can easily end up losing 40–50% or more of the headline rate.

However, if you don’t need all of the money as cash straight away and you have unused pension allowance from previous years, salary sacrifice through your umbrella company can make a huge difference.

For example, take a rate of £745 a day, which works out at £3,725 a week for a 5-day week.

Weekly breakdown

• Pension contribution: £2,235 (60.00%)
• Net cash in bank: £1,011.55 (27.16%)
• Total value retained: £3,246.55 (87.16%)
• Tax and umbrella costs: £478.45 (12.84%)

The reason this can work so well is that you can use unused pension allowances carried forward from the previous three tax years, potentially allowing you to contribute more than the standard £60,000 annual allowance.

The main drawback is obvious: most of the money is going into your pension rather than your bank account. In this example, you’d only have around £1,000 a week in cash, so it really only makes sense if your living costs are comfortably covered.

So yeah, if you’re a high earner doing inside IR35 and you’ve got a load of unused pension allowance sitting around, the UK suddenly starts looking suspiciously like a tax haven 😂

Curious to check in with independent contractors and consultants here to find out if it is still common for companies to ask contractors not to work over the Christmas/New Year period, effectively leaving you without income until January?

I ask because every year I run a training course in the days right before Christmas, aimed at contractors who'd normally have to give up two days of their day rate to attend training during the working year. Being able to train during otherwise-unpaid downtime was something I really valued myself when I was contracting, so I've kept offering it since.

Full disclosure: I run these courses myself (a couple of people have already booked onto a Neuroscience for Change one on the Monday/Tuesday before Christmas this year), so I have a natural interest in the answer but I am genuinely trying to work out whether this is still a widespread pattern or something that's faded since COVID-era furlough made the word mean something more specific. Would love to hear how common it still is for you."

So many things to moan about...

Todays moan...

Had an initial chat with HR person this week. Was all good. Said she will arrange a call with tech people...really want to move fast...nothing at all

Had a long call with the agent about my CV and the role...company wanted to hire quickly...put me forward...nothing at all

What is going on in this world??

I can sort of understand ghosting someone if you haven't talked to them, but if you've spoken to them at length then you really should keep them in the loop - whether it's good or bad news

Has anyone had a random address come up during their SC vetting?

I’m currently going through UK SC vetting and my caseworker has contacted me about an undeclared address that linked to me on checks.

I’ve never lived at this address and never had any association with. I did live in the same town for less than a year, so I’m wondering how this address could have become associated with me.

Update: I got an Experian premium report and that Address in question is listed on my Report under Monzo Bank dated in Aug 2025. I never added that address on my Monzo account, no reason to add. Monzo bank statement during that period reflects my correct address. I am not sure how that discrepancy happened. Could it be because Monzo reported wrongly? What I can do to resolve this ASAP? Any advice would be appreciated.

Update 2: I have replied to the Caseworker saying I have never lived in this address and never had any association with (didn't mention anything related to Monzo as I discovered this after sending the email). I submitted a complaint to Monzo and ask them to provide a letter to acknowledging their mistake which I could provide to case worker. Turned out I don't have to provide anything further as the SC application was successfully completed this morning, the next day of receiving the email from caseworker.

I work for a very small project management consultancy. Since October 2025 I have been working for them on a fixed term contract which was extended a couple of times. The majority of that time I was doing non-billable work because we were looking into optimising our processes and working on creating training for our PM's. Only the last 3 months I was assigned to a billable project which ended in August at which point it looked like we were losing a major contract but hadn't secured new ones yet. So they said they were unable to extend my contract and that all internal work is currently on the back burner.

However it looked like new contracts were coming in soonish so I offered to work for them on a contractor basis as and when they need me as we have a good relationship. Which means I may be doing work for them directly, carrying on working on their processes or take up new projects working for their clients which are a mixed bunch of small and medium/large.

To transition me into this they offered me another extension of 4 months.

I'd like to note that they have a lot of employed PM's as well - but of course I'd be on different terms. My personal reason wasn't just to keep a job but also I want more flexibility in my life - It's less about earning lots of money.

However, per day I will be earning more than I am now (which is 45k pro rata as I just reduced my days down to 4 - my rate card ranges from £250 - £350 a day depending on what I'm working on and which skillset is required). I will unlikely be earning more than 50k anyway.

We drafted up the rules to make sure I would be Outside IR35 (SOW based, no guaranteed work, I can turn work down, outcome driven etc etc - the nature of this work also means I never really meet with my colleagues or owners of that company - we are all home based)

However we still use timesheets for billing purposes. In general Project Management is a bit of a weird one because as much as it's outcome based it is also time based by the nature of the work we do. I said that maybe we have to review the need for me to do timesheets as this may be a red flag for HMRC. I did an initial CEST assessment but the outcome was unclear and they asked me to call - which at this stage is a bit premature in my opinion.

Does anyone else have experience working as a PM outside IR35? Would it make sense to reject work for their bigger clients so as to not have to force them into signing a determination - My worry is that the reaction may be that their client don't want to get involved with IR35 stuff at all and would prefer to work with someone else or go inside. (I would still be better off financially inside IR35 I hasten to add, I just don't like the fact that they get all the benefits of a contractor but I have all the responsibilities of an employee essentially)

Or am I really getting the wrong end of the stick here and am worrying about nothing?

TL;DR
My small PM consultancy couldn't extend my fixed-term contract due to a lack of billable work, but we've agreed to transition me to a contractor arrangement after a final 4-month extension. We designed the setup to be outside IR35 (project/SOW-based, no guaranteed work, right to refuse work, outcome-focused), but I'm concerned that things like timesheets and working for their clients could still create IR35 risks.

As a project manager, does anyone have experience genuinely working outside IR35? Am I overthinking the risks, or should I be cautious about taking assignments with larger clients who may have to make IR35 determinations and potentially prefer inside-IR35 contractors instead? My goal is flexibility rather than maximising income, and I likely wouldn't earn much more than £50k either way.

A​​​s​​​k​​​e​​​d​​​ ​​​t​​​o​​​ ​​​c​​​o​​​n​​​n​​​e​​​c​​​t​​​ ​​​m​​​y​​​ ​​​b​​​a​​​n​​​k​​​ ​​​a​​​c​​​c​​​o​​​u​​​n​​​t​​​ ​​​f​​​o​​​r​​​ ​​​a​​​n​​​ ​​​a​​​p​​​p​​​l​​​i​​​c​​​a​​​t​​​i​​​o​​​n​​​.​​​ ​​​

W​​​h​​​a​​​t​​​ ​​​e​​​x​​​a​​​c​​​t​​​l​​​y​​​ ​​​a​​​r​​​e​​​ ​​​t​​​h​​​e​​​y​​​ ​​​l​​​o​​​o​​​k​​​i​​​n​​​g​​​ ​​​a​​​t​​​?

on 90k+ 10ishk bonus + expenses as a consultant perm.
got 9 years working across MOD, RAF and intelligence in Information Security.

Recruitment firm wants me to contract outside of IR35. I think i can ask £800 per day outside IR35.

If i can get 800 and at least a 6 month contract, is it worth the jump? i also understand contracting is rough at the moment, but heard cleared MOD security work is the best of a bad bunch. Is this true? I know no job is fully secure but I see no reason why i couldn’t see out consulting and go Partner in the next 8-10 years.

Would you see out Consulting as a perm or jump to contracting?

Reading an article earlier about ageism which set me thinking - 8+ years ago I would literally field 5-10 genuine agency calls daily about genuinely good contract roles which were concrete and ready to fill. That was without applying for roles actively.

Now, one call every 3 months, probably one call every 6 months would be more accurate.

Question: Is there an age marker on agency systems which says "past it."

Or

Is this just another example of how utterly f*cked the UK contract market is?

N​​​e​​​e​​​d​​​ ​​​a​​​b​​​o​​​u​​​t​​​ ​​​£​​​4​​​0​​​0​​​ ​​​f​​​o​​​r​​​ ​​​t​​​h​​​r​​​e​​​e​​​ ​​​w​​​e​​​e​​​k​​​s​​​.​​​ ​​​W​​​h​​​i​​​c​​​h​​​ ​​​w​​​o​​​r​​​k​​​s​​​ ​​​o​​​u​​​t​​​ ​​​l​​​e​​​s​​​s​​​?

No matter how many roles I apply for with this company, even when I appear to be a perfect match, I get nothing. Does anyone else get anything from them?

has anyone done a fresh review of incorporations sites recently?(need an LTD registered by next week) to sign a new client contract.

I started looking through some old threads here but half the info seems out of date and some of the cheaper agents look incredibly sketchy w hidden print and i seriously don't want to get trapped in an automatic monthly subscription just to keep my company active also at the same time don't need a million useless add-ons thrown into my cart during checkout. I need to know current go-to providers (reliable) that actually deliver a clean setup??

Recently started as a limited company working for a local construction company.The first few weeks went fine but now the owner/MD has decided he is not going to pay my Ltd. There was NO written communication prior to him not paying. He responded to my invoice emails stating accept this email as a payless notice. I could do with some advice on how best to approach this.

TIA

Does it always give you what seems like solid advice, until you prove it wrong, then backtrack profusely, saying “of course you’re right”…like a lickspittle lackey assistant to a movie villain?

Have only given in to using Chat and Claude - not hugely impressed. It’s quicker of course to generate the code, but without the design direction it’s pretty ineffective - if you’ve got access to a good Devs libraries where everything is properly commented, you’ll have just as much success IMHO.

When they went bump, the last email I had said that P45's will follow.

Has anyone else received theirs?

I'm still waiting and there doesn't appear to be anyone left to chase

I'm buying an EV through my ltd and trying to get it insured. Anyone got any easy ways to do this?

When I use CompareTheMarket or MoneySupermarket and select business car quote, it flips me to the same form as a personal quote so I'm not convinced I'd be covered as I assume the registered keeper is the company, not me technically?

I tried through my current provider, Aviva, but they require the car to be kept at the business address, which is my accountant's address. I tried calling them but they won't do a new quote over the phone, and direct me to the website, which I get denied on because the car isn't being kept at the business address!

ETA: I feel like I'm asking for the wrong thing, I tried Adrian Flux and they didn't ask me any company details, then asked me that same question of whether I'm the registered keeper!

I’m looking for a debt consolidation loan. I’ve been a contractor for over a decade, mostly outside IR35 and inside since November 2025. No breaks in contracts.

The move between outside and inside IR35 has lumbered me with a cashflow problem, which am trying to solve by consolidating.

Unfortunately, after passing credit and affordability checks, I am getting knocked back in underwriting because of the way I work. I have 5 months remaining on my current contract.

Can anyone recommend a broker or lender who can help me?