Confused about PAYE offer

[BabyGanoush]

I have a tiny job. yay! I get paid based on my hours, around £300 a month for now.

Employer says they can pay me through PAYE or just putting cash into my account.

What is the advantage of PAYE?

I guess at such low rates/amounts I don't have to pay tax anyway?

Sorry if it's a dumb question, I am from outside the UK and trying to get my head around it. I have been employed here before (proper full time job) and have an NI number but that was all years ago.

Cash is illegal - PAYE is the law.

I thought I could declare it myself through self assessment, as an option?

It's a free lance sort of project based job, some weeks it's 2 hours, some weeks 20.

Even more confused!

If you are registered as self employed and have other self employed earnings and are doing a tax return and raising them invoices then its fine
but the vast bulk of UK workers do not do tax returns - they are taxed through PAYE
and any "employer" wanting to pay cash sounds like they do not want to give you any of your legal rights

It's not a choice. The question is whether you're an employee or whether you're self employed - that's a matter of law, not preference.. That is a decision that your employer has to make and they bear the consequences if they get it wrong.

You (or your employer) can follow through HMRC's employment status indicator tool to decide whether you're an employee or self employed.

tools.hmrc.gov.uk/esi/screen/ESI/en-GB/summary?user=guest

If you're an employer, they should pay you via PAYE. If you are self employed, they pay you direct and you have to register as self employed with HMRC and submit a self assessment tax return each year, regardless of the amount of your earnings - anything over £1 and you have to register and complete a tax return, even if there's no tax due.