Question About Working Through Recruiting Agencies

Which of the two companies sends pay tickets at the moment? With which company is the Contract of Employment? Which company deducts tax and (in the UK) National Insurance contributions?

My personal contract was with Company A but my manager said their contract was with company B when they hired me on. I don't know what pay tickets are, I'm pretty sure company A is deducting taxes from my paycheck

Why aren't you certain, then? Surely you have a pay slip showing the amount paid gross, the deductions, and the net pay? Who is your line report? Why are you asking here instead of companies A and B? Do you know how a telephone works?

You then work for company A. Your work product is for company C, your client company. You are not "double dipping". This is actually a fairly common temporary worker configuration. Don't worry about it. Company A may specialize in identifying quality workers while company B cultivates assignments to complete. Depending on the tax laws, insurance and a whole lot of other aspects company C may even be getting your services at the lowest rate.

Just like real estate sales, there is many unknown or not obvious relationships between companies. Some call it "Hanky-panky" others call it business. Who does your employer pay the recruitment fee to (company A or B)? The one they pay for you is the one you work for. If the other one is involved with it, that is a separate business matter between the two recruiting agencies. This is also very frequently used for government contracts and businesses that for one reason or another want to use outside personnel instead of hiring them into the company. This is often done with maintenance personnel or telephone solicitors.

Good Luck, Old Salt

I've worked for contractors, too. It was common practice for Contractor A ,the one who interviewed and hired me, to use Contractor B to actually hold my contract. The reason was that Contractor B was minority-owned or female-owned or a small business. This allowed Contractor A to demonstrate they were following Federal guidelines which then allowed them to successfully bid on government business.