Side Hustles: How To Earn More Money? Tonight

Adam Shaw reports on Side Hustles: How To Earn More Money? Tonight on ITV at 8:30pm

The cost of living has been increasing across the UK since early 2021, and in April inflation reached its highest recorded level since the early eighties.

Higher household bills from food to electricity have encouraged over a million people in Britain to take on an extra job…known to many as a side hustle to help them make some more cash. 

Single mum from Leeds, Noshina works as a Programme Manager but in her spare time she has two extra jobs or ‘side hustles’ alongside her day job. One is making eco-friendly homeware products and the other is a hair accessories business.

Noshina says

“The cost of living has impacted us.  I've got a teenage son. I've only got one income coming in.  Anything that I can do from home that works around him, works around my existing job is brilliant”

Here in the UK, research suggests having a side hustle increases peoples’ incomes by 20% on average - and boosts the economy too.

And according to Dr Charmi Patel, Associate Professor at Henley Business School it’s not just millennials that are engaging ina Side Hustle.

She says: “The age group from 51 to 64 still engage in 17% of side hustles.”

Retired church minister, Dawn, from Barnsley is proving exactly that. At 64, she’s not yet able to claim her state pension. 

She said “...having left the church and being on a very low income, I needed to find something that would help me to be able to pay those bills, to be able to even just to buy food or pay for petrol or just be able to treat our grandchildren.”

Dawn has started selling beauty products online and face to face, and is delighted with the results of her side hustle, she says: 

“...I made £50 a month doing one class a month. But now 12 months later I will be making £800 this month minimum. I absolutely think it's an amazing idea for women and men to be able to do something different alongside what they're doing already. This is really a great opportunity to meet new people but also you're bringing that extra income in.” 

Between February and April this year there were 1.2 million people with a second job - that's up one hundred thousand on just a year before.

But what are the tax implications of having a job and a side hustle?

Tax Expert John Whiting said:  “If you've got one job, you've got your tax code which gives you personal allowance. You're tax free pay just over 12 and a half thousand pounds.If you then get a second job, there's every chance that you will be simply taxed at a straight 20%, no allowances. Look at HMRC website for tax codes, there is also a little tax calculator there to see if the tax has come out right.” 

Find out more about how Malcolm gets on this evening at 8:30pm on ITV on ‘Side Hustles - How to Earn More Money?’ 

Useful Contacts

HMRC: https://www.gov.uk/topic/personal-tax/self-assessment