Chersty Bitsindou earns around £530 a month as a dental technician, but she also makes extra money doing a cleaning job
Mum-of-three Chersty Bitsindou has explained how she tops up her income doing a job that everyone hates.
The 38-year-old from Greenwich, London, earns around £530 a month by working 14 hours a week as a dental technician. But she also makes extra money doing a cleaning job, where she can earn £205 for an end of tenancy clean.
She also claims Universal Credit which gives her around £1,754 a month. The Sun reports that her estimated yearly income is just under £30,000.
Chersty told the newspaper that she worked full-time in dentistry for nine years but started looking for a side hustle in 2018 to give her more flexibility to look after her three children, Amy, 19, Cherik, 13, and Naima, 8.
She said: “I loved my job and the fact that fixing dentures let me put a smile back on people’s faces. But I was struggling with balancing my full-time job as a dental technician with looking after three young children. It was always a juggle.”
Chersty uses a website called Airtasker to list her cleaning work, where she now charges £205 for an end of tenancy clean, £64 to clean an oven and £128 for a regular clean.
Airtasker is an online services marketplace where people list jobs they can do. Airtasker takes a cut of 20% from the earnings that Chersty makes.
Chersty added: “I’m able to choose whenever I work and can still be there to pick up my kids. I work according to my time and enjoy the flexibility.”
Any money earned from Airtasker is not taxed, so this is something to keep in mind if you are considering taking on a side hustle. You can earn up to £1,000 every tax year in income outside of your regular employment without having to declare it to HMRC.
If you claim Universal Credit, you should also be aware that your earnings can impact your benefit payments. Your payment can go down by 55p for every £1 you earn above your work allowance.
Your work allowance is the amount of money you can earn from working before your Universal Credit payment starts to be reduced.
The work allowance is £684 a month if you are responsible for one or more children or qualifying young persons, and you do not get any help with housing costs.
