Which Lenders Accept Agency & Temp Workers?
Agency and temporary work is no barrier to a mortgage with the right lender. Most look for around 12 months of continuous work in the same field — supply teachers, locums, and umbrella or PAYE agency staff all qualify. Here's the lender list and how the income is assessed. Last reviewed July 2026.
Quick answer
Most UK lenders accept agency and temporary worker income where there's around 12 months of continuous work in the same line, with income averaged from recent payslips. Moving between agencies is fine; what matters is continuity, not one employer. Umbrella and PAYE agency staff qualify, and day-rate agency contractors may also use the more generous contractor method.
Original data · our Lender Lottery study
As of August 2026, a Nurse, £35,000 + shift enhancements could be offered £273,000 by Darlington Building Society but only £166,653 by Mansfield Building Society — a £106,347 (64%) swing based purely on which lender they ask, with no change to income, deposit or circumstances.
Source: the Lender Lottery study — original real-engine data across UK residential lenders.
What lenders look for in agency income
The assessment centres on continuity, not a permanent contract. Underwriters typically check:
- A track record of roughly 12 months' continuous agency or temporary work, usually in the same field.
- Recent payslips (3–12 months) to average into an annual income figure.
- That gaps between assignments are short and reasonable, or briefly explained.
- Ideally a current, ongoing assignment at the point of application.
If you work on a day rate through an agency or umbrella, ask to be considered under the contractor day-rate method as well — it annualises your rate and can produce a higher figure. Note that a handful of lenders exclude agency and temp work from that route specifically; our sister site covers which, in agency and zero-hours mortgages.
Deposit & LTV reference for variable-hours lenders
Agency and zero-hours income are underwritten on the same continuous-employment principle, and our deposit/LTV dataset is built around that shared variable-hours category — so the 55 lenders below are the closest published proxy for deposit and LTV terms on agency income specifically. For the question “does this lender accept agency income at all, and for how long a track record”, see the verdict table further down, which is sourced from the agency-specific field in our criteria dataset rather than this proxy.
| Lender | Type | Details | Min deposit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of Ireland | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Barclays | High-street | Up to 95% LTV | 5% |
| Halifax | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| HSBC | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Nationwide | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| NatWest | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Santander | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| The Co-operative Bank | High-street | Up to 95% LTV | 5% |
| TSB | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Virgin Money | High-street | Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Accord Mortgages | Building society | Up to 99% LTV, min 12 months history | 1% |
| Bath Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 36 months history | 5% |
| Beverley Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Buckinghamshire Building Society | Building society | Up to 90% LTV, min 12 months history | 10% |
| Chorley Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Coventry Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Cumberland Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Darlington Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV (80% for London/M25 remortgage) | 5% |
| Dudley Building Society | Building society | Up to 90% LTV | 10% |
| Earl Shilton Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Ecology Building Society | Building society | Green-gated lending only — every product requires the property to meet ecological/EPC criteria; LTV varies by product (Eco Home/Green Renovation 80%, Renovation 90%, Shared Ownership 95% of share) | 20% |
| Family Building Society | Building society | Up to 80% LTV, min 24 months history | 20% |
| Hanley Economic Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Harpenden BS | Building society | Up to 80% LTV, min 24 months history | 20% |
| Hinckley & Rugby Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Loughborough Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 6 months history | 5% |
| Mansfield Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Market Harborough Building Society | Building society | Up to 80% LTV, min 12 months history | 20% |
| Marsden Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV | 5% |
| Monmouthshire Building Society | Building society | Temporarily paused — not accepting new residential applications while they upgrade their systems. Previously: Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Newcastle Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Nottingham Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Principality Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Saffron Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Skipton Building Society | Building society | Up to 100% LTV, min 12 months history | 0% |
| Stafford Railway Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Suffolk Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 18 months history | 5% |
| Teachers Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| The Melton Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV (interest-only 60%, London 60%) | 5% |
| Tipton & Coseley Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Vernon Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| West Bromwich Building Society | Building society | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Atom Bank | Specialist | Up to 95% LTV, min 24 months history | 5% |
| Bluestone Mortgages | Specialist | Up to 90% LTV, min 12 months history | 10% |
| Central Trust | Specialist | Remortgage and capital-raising only — does not currently lend on property purchases | 100% |
| Generation Home | Specialist | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Hodge Bank | Specialist | Up to 95% LTV | 5% |
| Kensington Mortgages | Specialist | Up to 95% LTV | 5% |
| LendInvest | Specialist | Up to 90% LTV, min 12 months history | 10% |
| Norton Home Loans | Specialist | Up to 80% LTV, min 2 months history | 20% |
| Pepper Money | Specialist | Up to 85% LTV (75% above £750k), zero-hours accepted if permanent and 2+ years with the same employer | 15% |
| Perenna | Specialist | Up to 95% LTV, min 12 months history | 5% |
| Precise Mortgages | Specialist | Up to 95% LTV, min 6 months history | 5% |
| Together | Specialist | Up to 75% LTV, zero-hours explicitly accepted | 25% |
| West One Loans | Specialist | Up to 97.5% LTV, min 12 months history | 2.5% |
The history shown is each lender's minimum for variable-hours income on a standard residential mortgage; continuity of work matters more than staying with one agency.
Which lenders accept agency income: the verdicts
Built directly from our lender criteria dataset (99 residential lenders, last verified 24 June 2026) — not a hand-picked sample. 59 of 95 lenders publish a position on agency/temporary income: 48 accept it, 5 decline it, 5 refer it for individual underwriter review, and 1 require further checks. The remaining 36 don't publish a position on agency income at all.
An explicit minimum track record in months is published by only 4 of those 59 lenders — Ecology BS, Market Harborough BS, West Bromwich BS and West One all state 12 months. Every other lender that accepts agency income does so without a published number: most lenders assess agency and temporary income case-by-case on the strength of your continuity-of-work evidence, rather than against a fixed minimum, so treat the figures below as a starting point for a conversation with the lender or a broker, not a pass/fail threshold.
| Lender | Verdict | Minimum track record |
|---|---|---|
| Ecology BS | Yes | 12 months |
| Market Harborough BS | Yes | 12 months |
| West Bromwich BS | Yes | 12 months |
| West One | Yes | 12 months |
| AIB | Yes | Not published |
| Accord | Yes | Not published |
| Aldermore | Yes | Not published |
| Atom Bank | Yes | Not published |
| Beverley BS | Yes | Not published |
| Bluestone | Yes | Not published |
| Buckinghamshire BS | Yes | Not published |
| Central Trust | Yes | Not published |
| Cumberland BS | Yes | Not published |
| Dudley BS | Yes | Not published |
| Earl Shilton BS | Yes | Not published |
| Foundation | Yes | Not published |
| Furness BS | Yes | Not published |
| Generation Home | Yes | Not published |
| HSBC | Yes | Not published |
| Halifax | Yes | Not published |
| Hanley BS | Yes | Not published |
| Harpenden BS | Yes | Not published |
| Hinckley & Rugby BS | Yes | Not published |
| Hodge | Yes | Not published |
| Kensington | Yes | Not published |
| LG Home Finance | Yes | Not published |
| Leeds BS | Yes | Not published |
| Loughborough BS | Yes | Not published |
| Marsden BS | Yes | Not published |
| Metro Bank | Yes | Not published |
| Monmouthshire BS | Yes | Not published |
| NatWest | Yes | Not published |
| Nationwide | Yes | Not published |
| Newcastle BS | Yes | Not published |
| Norton | Yes | Not published |
| Nottingham BS | Yes | Not published |
| Perenna | Yes | Not published |
| Principality | Yes | Not published |
| Progressive BS | Yes | Not published |
| Saffron BS | Yes | Not published |
| Santander | Yes | Not published |
| Skipton | Yes | Not published |
| TSB | Yes | Not published |
| Tandem | Yes | Not published |
| Teachers BS | Yes | Not published |
| Together | Yes | Not published |
| Vernon BS | Yes | Not published |
| Virgin Money | Yes | Not published |
| Cambridge BS | Refer | Not published |
| Chorley BS | Refer | Not published |
| Family BS | Refer | Not published |
| The Mortgage Lender | Refer | Not published |
| UTB | Refer | Not published |
| Darlington BS | Check | Not published |
| Bank of Ireland | No | Not published |
| Bath BS | No | Not published |
| Coventry BS | No | Not published |
| Melton BS | No | Not published |
| Pepper | No | Not published |
“Refer” and “Check” mean the lender considers agency income case-by-case rather than as standard — not a decline. Sourced from our lender criteria dataset, generated 28 July 2026, criteria last verified 24 June 2026.
Worked example: supply teacher on agency payslips
£32,000 averaged agency income over 14 months, single applicant, 25-year term, 10% deposit.
| Lender approach | Income used | Indicative max lend |
|---|---|---|
| 100% of 12-month average | £32,000 | £144,000 |
| 75% weighting on average | £24,000 | £108,000 |
| Requires 24 months — declines | — | £0 |
The gap between a lender that accepts 12 months at 100% and one that needs 24 months is the difference between approval and decline. Figures are illustrative — run yours for each lender's real number.
Tips for agency & temp applications
- Keep evidence of continuous work — a run of payslips or an agency letter confirming ongoing assignments carries real weight.
- Try to apply while mid-assignment; a current contract reassures the underwriter the income continues.
- Staying in the same field matters more than staying with one agency — don't worry about having switched agencies.
- If you're on a day rate, check the contractor method too — it can annualise your rate for a higher figure.
- Compare lenders first — some accept 12 months at full value while others want 24; the right choice can be approval vs decline.
Frequently asked questions
How do lenders assess agency worker income?
Lenders look for continuity of income rather than a single permanent employer. Most want to see around 12 months of continuous agency or temporary work — often in the same line of work — and then average your recent payslips to set an annual figure. A current, ongoing assignment strengthens the case.
Do I need to have stayed with the same agency?
Usually not. What matters is continuity of work in the same field, not loyalty to one agency. Moving between agencies is fine provided there aren't long unexplained gaps between assignments.
Can umbrella or PAYE agency workers get a mortgage?
Yes. Umbrella and PAYE agency workers are assessed on their payslips like other variable-income employees. Day-rate contractors working through an umbrella may also qualify for the contractor day-rate method, which can be more generous.
What about gaps between assignments?
Short gaps between assignments are normal and expected for agency work. Longer gaps may need a brief explanation, and being mid-assignment when you apply reassures the underwriter that the income is ongoing.
See which lender accepts your agency income
Enter your agency earnings and history. We'll show each lender's real maximum side-by-side, so you apply to one that accepts your income first time.
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