Avon and UC

[AnitaJai]

Hi, I am a single parent and work full-time, due to the cost of living crisis I am looking for additional work and I came across Avon. It seems like an easy way to make a little extra money. I also get universal credit. Having spoken to a rep at Avon they mentioned the work is classed as self employed but you only pay tax if you’re earning over £1000 a month.
Can anyone advise if this will impact my UC?
than in advance 😊

It’s over £1000 per year not per month

Yes, you don't pay tax if you earn £1000 or less per year (not month), and you don't have to declare it to HMRC.

However, my work coach told me that you would still have to register as self employed and report all earnings to the Job Centre.

Joining a multi level marketing scheme is unfortunately not a good way to earn extra money, and majority of people who join them lose money (and a lot of it in many cases!). Especially Avon where it’s an oversaturated market of people selling it (6 in the village I work in alone!). The rep would be complimentary of the business model and hype up how much you can earn because they earn commission off your sales and downline if they can sign you up for it.

Rather than the £1,000 per annum that you can get taxx free per annum from miscellaneous income, they were referring to your personal tax allowance which is likely to be around £1k monthly. But you are using that allowance in your PAYE employment.
Not sure I'd look to a pyramid scheme cosmetic salesperson for tax advice TBH

I did it years ago around 2009. I don't know if it's still the case but I had to pay around £140 upfront I think for the brochures etc. Had a real problem getting them back off people once I'd put them through their doors too. I think also there were targets to meet in order to get paid, you had to sell so much per month. Kleeneze were easier, no fees up front and earnings fairer. Neither are great for self esteem, trudging round with people not answering the door. I did a leaflet drop once but the time target and size of area to drop was crazy, I only managed half I think.

Regardless of UC, it is not a good income source. You have to pay upfront costs and I am pretty sure you need to sell a certain minimum value in order to get your commission which means that the vast majority of your work is going to be unpaid.
If I were you, I'd sooner get a shift in a pub.

MLMs are never an easy way to make a little extra money.

You won't earn £1,000 per month - or year - from Avon
I'd definitely recommend something like evening hours waitressing or bartending if you want some actual guaranteed income

Don't do an MLM to earn extra money. It's a lot of work, probably not very compatible to working FT and being a parent in non-work hours, and you won't earn much. If you want extra work, do some easy at home gig sort of work - audio transcription or something similar. You get paid a guarantee rate and you can do it in the evenings after bedtime, not during sociable daytime hours.

From what I can gather it is £1000 in sales, rather than earnings. You can earn upto 32% in commission which means if you sold £1000 you would get £320. But then you will be using that for the books, the samples, any stationery you may need, if you drive any fuel you would use. As a beginner it is very hard, in my experience

No, it's £1,000 per year self employed income.

If you don’t break even you’ll probably just lose money doing Avon, so you won’t have a problem.

Its an MLM, don't do it!

I really really don't understand Avon.

I can buy it off the website direct if I want to. Why is it advantageous to wait for a paper catalogue and then have it delivered to someone completely different, who brings it to me??

It worked when there was no Internet, but it's just pointless now.

You still need to register as self employed
You pay tax on your total combined income.

You'll loose 65p of every £1 you earn from your UC. You'll also need to file a self assessment tax return however little you earn as you're presumably using up your allowance on your PAYE job. Once you've paid the tax you'll end up keeping about 30p out of every £1 profit you make. Pretty much the same for any extra work you do. And they wonder why people don't bother.

I work full time and get a UC top up. I also work a second job, self employed as a cleaner, I work around 10hrs a month. I have to declare all my self employed earnings every month as this gets added to my employed work and UC adjust my payments according.

It will affect UC. Any self-employed work must be reported (including cah in hand). Otherwise, it is fraud. I earned £10 an hour for my side hustle; for every £1 I earned, I lost £0.55 of universal credit. You won't be taxed if you earn less than £1000 per year (income before expenses). I still registered as self-employed to be on the safe side and just reported everything I earned, even if it was below the threshold. You don't want to get hit with a massive bill somewhere down the line. I don't know anything about Avon, but I'd say just be careful because if something sounds too good to be true...