An agency worker is a person who is engaged and paid by one party (normally an employment agency) for work done for a third party, the employment provider (normally the agency’s client)
For SSP purposes a person's status is determined under the
provisions of the
Social SecurityCategorisation of Earners’ Regulations 1978 /Social
Security (Categorisation of Earners)Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1978 ("the Categorisation of
Earners Regulations")
Agency workers do not normally have a contract of service or
a contract for services with either the agency or their client.
They are engaged under a
'sui generis contract', which means ’of its
own kind - unique’.
If the employer is referred to as an agency but their
workers are engaged under a contract of service they are not
“agency workers” in this context, but may be short
contract employees. See
SPM10240.
Under
regulation 2 of the Categorisation of Earners’
Regulations, agency workers are deemed to be employed in
employed earners employment (that is, as employees) for NICs
purposes. Class 1 NICs are payable on their earnings and the agency
is the liable secondary contributor.
If the agency does not accept Class 1 NICs liability, or the
exact status is not clear, this issue must be settled before SSP
liability can be determined - the status may effect whether SSP is
payable.
Under the provisions of
regulation 16 of the SSP (General) Regulations, a
worker treated as an employee under the Categorisation of Earners
Regulations is deemed to be an employee and have a “contract
of service” – the deemed contract – for the
purposes of entitlement to SSP
The deemed contract starts on the date the agency worker is
offered and accepts an assignment and finishes at the end of that
assignment. Subsequent assignments give rise to a new deemed
contract of service.
For example, if an agency worker engaged on a weekly
assignment, Monday to Friday, is given their next assignment on a
Thursday then the new contract starts on that Thursday.
