Semi retirement - exam invigilating plus ?

gele

Hi all
After much consideration, I have finally bit the bullet and decided to retire from my full time job. I have been offered the position of an exam invigilator in a college but it is very seasonal. I will be employed by the college but have never had 2 jobs and am wondering how easy it is to work a second similarly seasonal / very part time job alongside. Does it cause issues with the 2 different employers or HMRC for example [ am intended to stay under tax threshold anyway] Does anyone do this kind of thing and can advice of any pitfalls? Looking for general advice really,
Thanks

Brie

Obviously it will depend on the employers but given enough notice most will be able to swap shifts or move days if they want to keep you.  I've known a number of business types that have happily moved to little jobs at Tescos etc just to get out and about, have a bit of income and to get discounted shopping.  A place like that will be very happy to have you work a Sunday instead of mid week if that helps you too.  

As for HMRC - you'll just have different tax codes.  Likely one for your regular p/t job and then maybe a basic rate for your exam work?  And they'll likely change more often than when you were working but it will all equal out in the long run.

gele

I suppose I'm just wondering if I don't get as much work invigilating as I hoped when exams are on, how easy would it be to take on a 2nd casual part time role as well. As I say I've only ever had 1 full time role at any one time so more than 1 job, however small, is completely new concept to me. 

ElefantEd

The dates of exams are known well in advance, the admin of the college will want to sort out invigilation sooner rather than later so it should be straightforward to know which times/days you're available for another job. There are no problems with HMRC; at the worst you may be owed a tax refund at the end of the year if you are overtaxed in the second job, but it all happens quite automatically.

gele

Thanks. This is good to hear. i am going to start with the invigilating and see how it goes in the busier months of May and June and then see how I feel with regards to looking for something else afterwards.

here_for_the_tips

If possible you may want to keep an eye out for local Universities looking for exam invigilators, 3 exam diets during the academic year plus re-sits over the summer vacation period as well so a better spread of work throughout the year. 

gele

 here_for_the_tips said:

If possible you may want to keep an eye out for local Universities looking for exam invigilators, 3 exam diets during the academic year plus re-sits over the summer vacation period as well so a better spread of work throughout the year. 

Thank you for this. Certainly worth looking out for.

df-MRes_student

gele said:

Hi all
After much consideration, I have finally bit the bullet and decided to retire from my full time job. I have been offered the position of an exam invigilator in a college but it is very seasonal. I will be employed by the college but have never had 2 jobs and am wondering how easy it is to work a second similarly seasonal / very part time job alongside. Does it cause issues with the 2 different employers or HMRC for example [ am intended to stay under tax threshold anyway] Does anyone do this kind of thing and can advice of any pitfalls? Looking for general advice really,
Thanks

Hello Gele,
I have previously done exam invigilation work for several academies over a two year period, alongside other Teaching Assistant (TA), SEN TA, Learning Assistant, and Nursery Practitioner work when I worked through 3 education recruitment agencies, whilst on a Teacher Training Course to get full teaching status in the Post-compulsory Sector.

I simply telephoned HMRC to inform them of the 3 agencies and they split my tax allowance between the three agencies so that my tax codes were correct from the start. I never worked more than the amount of my free tax entitlement so it was never a problem.

I hope this helps.

Best,