Your payslip shows tax deducted. HMRC may never have got it.

HM Revenue and Customs issued a warning on 15 September 2026 about a fraud that is almost invisible from the worker’s side.

Criminal groups run a payroll or umbrella company that sits in the supply chain between the worker and the site. They take tax, National Insurance and Construction Industry Scheme deductions out of the pay, show them on the payslip, and never send the money to HMRC.

Edwige Hill, a deputy director in HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said the department is “taking robust action to tackle payslip fraud while helping workers spot the warning signs of it”. Manchester and Liverpool are the current focus.

Why the payslip proves nothing

This is the part people get wrong, and it is the whole reason the fraud works.

HMRC puts it plainly: “False payslips make it look like your employer has paid the correct tax and National Insurance on your behalf, when they have not.” Nothing about the document tells you which sort you are holding.

The only record that settles it is HMRC’s own. Sign in to your Personal Tax Account or open the HMRC app and check that the tax and National Insurance on your payslip match what HMRC has recorded against your name. If they do not match, the money did not arrive.

The damage is not only the money

National Insurance builds your State Pension record. HMRC’s guidance warns that where the correct contributions were not paid you may not be able to get benefits like Universal Credit, maternity or paternity pay, or your full State Pension.

For a subcontractor registered under the Construction Industry Scheme, there is a second loss. HMRC says your CIS deductions may not be paid over, which can mean you cannot claim a repayment you were expecting.

This is why the paperwork matters. Keep your payslips, your contract and anything showing what was deducted — that evidence is what lets HMRC put your National Insurance record right. Contact HMRC if you think the record is wrong.

What changed on 6 April 2026

The rules moved in April. Where an umbrella company is in the chain, the agency that supplies the worker to the end client is now legally responsible for operating PAYE on that worker’s pay, whether it runs the payroll itself or hands that job to the umbrella. Where more than one agency is involved, it is the agency holding the contract with the end client. Where there is no agency at all, the end client carries it. HMRC can recover any underpayment from whoever holds that responsibility.

HMRC’s estimate of the scale: at least 275,000 workers, “and likely significantly more”, were engaged at some point in 2022 to 2023 by umbrella companies that failed to comply with their tax obligations.

The signs HMRC lists

• You get no payslip, or no payment and deduction statement
• The one you get looks fake
• The deductions on it do not match your Personal Tax Account
• Your payslips change format, or show an employer name you do not recognise
• Deductions you cannot identify, labelled something vague like “admin adjustments”
• Your take-home pay does not match the hours you worked
• You are told you will get your full pay, without tax taken off
• You are moved between payroll companies without a clear reason

To report it, search “report tax fraud” on GOV.UK. You do not have to give your own details to make a report.

If you are on Agenda for Change, the NHS take-home calculator shows what the tax, National Insurance and pension lines on your payslip should come to for your band — a starting point for spotting a figure that does not belong there.

Where these figures come from

• HMRC issues warning over construction payslip fraud — Construction Enquirer
• Check for signs of outsourced labour payroll fraud — GOV.UK
• Check for signs of labour fraud in construction — GOV.UK
• Tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market — GOV.UK
• PAYE rules for labour supply chains that include umbrella companies from 6 April 2026 — GOV.UK

Every figure traces to a dated document — the line this section is named after. If one here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed publicly. Work out your own figures.