New Subscription for PAs

At the beginning of July we introduced a subscription fee for PAs to try and increase very necessary revenue to fund the website and make more improvements. There have been a few concerns raised by PA Users and PAs since and we wanted to explain how the PA subscriptions work and reassure members that we’ve already taken those concerns into consideration, before implementing the new PA fees structure.

‘A lot of the PAs I've messaged recently are not subscribed.’

As the new PA subscription has only just been introduced, there will be a lot of PAs who aren’t yet subscribed. Since the beginning of July, 98 PAs have taken out new subscriptions and we expect this number to rise steadily as more PAs look for work.

‘It seems my messages to the PAs do not go through because they are not subscribed.’

PA’s don’t need to be subscribed to read messages, only to reply or send them. This enables the PA to read their messages and decide if they are interested before they have to subscribe. PA Users should then get responses from PAs who are genuinely interested rather than time wasters. We also hope that by needing a subscription to contact PA Users it will also discourage ’Spamming’.

So just to clarify, any messages PA Users have sent to PAs can be read without a subscription. All members receive a ‘new message’ notification to their registered email address to let them know they have a new message in their PA Pool inbox.

‘£120 a year when you are not looking for full time work in current climate could well put PAs off.’

PA subscriptions start from £10 a month which enables them to contact and reply to PA Users. Subscriptions are not automatically renewed when they come to an end, so both PAs and PA Users only need to subscribe when they are actively looking for work.

‘Mum’s PA said she won’t pay for her subscription because it is expensive.’

Many other platforms similar to PA Pool take a percentage of the PAs weekly wage which is normally 14% or more. We don’t think that’s fair. PAs can earn £1000+ a week from shifts they find on PA Pool, therefore we felt a small monthly fee was more reasonable, and £10 for a month a fair charge to contact these clients.

We want to make PA Pool better for both PAs and PA Users but this costs money. To do this and positively impact the user experience, we must pay a developer to make and implement these changes to the website. PA Pool is owned and operated by Katy who works on a voluntary basis, so member subscriptions are our lifeblood. In order to keep PA Pool funded and operating, we’d really appreciate it if PA Users refrained from giving their private contact details in their first message to PAs.

Click here to compare the new PA Subscription plans: papool.co.uk/subscriptions/pa-plans.