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The Direct Engagement Ready Guide.
Joint and several liability has changed how recruitment agencies carry risk in their contract workforce supply chain. This guide sets out what changed, the questions to ask now, and a six-step checklist you can work through with your team.
4 pages · plain English · no jargon
What actually changed in April 2026
Where responsibility for PAYE and National Insurance now sits, and what that means when a third party in your chain gets it wrong.
Why it is a board issue, not a payroll one
How exposure scales with worker volume and detection lag, and why indemnities are only worth what the counterparty can pay.
Three questions to ask now
With what a good, evidence-based answer looks like for each — not a description of the model, but records you can produce.
A six-step readiness checklist
Map the chain, quantify the exposure, test the evidence, review contracts, decide the model, prepare the communications.
WHY WE WROTE IT
Written by people who have run these operations.
Kova is the Direct Engagement Partner for recruitment agencies. We provide the technology, operational infrastructure and specialist support agencies need to engage and pay contract workers directly. The agency retains the relationships, the workforce information, the supporting evidence and the commercial decisions.
This guide is general information about how supply chain risk is changing. It is not tax or legal advice, and it does not guarantee compliance. Agencies should take their own professional advice on their specific circumstances.