How to make money from home in the UK: 20 legitimate ideas

How we chose these ideas

• Realistic earnings: whether it can pay a fair rate for your time, not just pennies per task. We have not quoted typical hourly rates because they vary hugely by skill, location and platform. Check what others with similar experience charge before setting your price.
• Start-up cost: how much you need to spend before you earn anything. Most ideas here need little more than a laptop and a phone.
• Time to first payment: some pay within days, others take months to build up.
• Skills needed: whether you can start with no experience or need a qualification, registration or licence.
• Legitimacy and scam risk: we left out anything that asks for upfront fees, crypto, or recruiting other people. If an opportunity is not on this list, that does not make it a scam, but use the checks in the scams section below.

20 ways to make money from home compared

Skills-based work: the best-paid options

• Freelance writing, editing and proofreading (1): blog posts, product descriptions, CVs and editing for small businesses. A short portfolio of samples matters more than qualifications.
• Virtual assistant work (2): inbox management, scheduling, research and data entry for busy business owners. Good if you are organised and reliable.
• Bookkeeping (3): in steady demand from sole traders. You will usually need training and bookkeeping software, and anyone offering bookkeeping services must be supervised for anti-money laundering, which HMRC or a professional body can provide.
• Graphic or web design (4): logos, social graphics and simple websites. Free tools are fine to start.
• Social media management (5): local cafes, trades and salons often want help posting regularly. A monthly retainer gives predictable income.
• A remote employed job (6): often overlooked. Part-time home-based customer service, admin and sales roles are advertised on mainstream job sites. You get the minimum wage or more, holiday pay and tax handled through PAYE.

Tutoring, testing and small online tasks

• Online tutoring (7): GCSE and A-level maths, English and sciences are popular. Platforms such as MyTutor, Tutorful and Superprof connect you with students, and many ask for a DBS check.
• Language teaching (8): conversation practice for learners abroad on platforms such as italki or Preply, if you speak another language or English as a native speaker.
• Transcription and captioning (9): turning audio into text. Accuracy and fast typing matter, and pay is usually per audio minute.
• Website and app testing (10): recording yourself using a site and saying what you think. Tests are short and paid individually, but availability is patchy.
• Paid surveys and research studies (11): fine for spare minutes, not a wage. Academic research sites such as Prolific tend to pay better than points-based survey sites. See our guide to survey sites.

Making and selling from home

• Selling unwanted items (12): clothes on Vinted, electronics on eBay, furniture on Facebook Marketplace. Our guide to selling unwanted items online compares the fees, and selling on Vinted and Depop has listing tips.
• Handmade crafts (13): jewellery, candles, cards and prints on Etsy, Folksy or at local markets. Cost your materials and time honestly, as many crafters undercharge.
• Digital products (14): budget planners, CV templates or teaching resources. You make them once and can sell them many times, but sales take time to build.
• Sewing alterations or ironing (15): a local service that word of mouth and community Facebook groups can fill quickly.
• Content creation (16): YouTube, TikTok, blogging or podcasting. It can take months before any income arrives. HMRC treats ad revenue and free products you receive for promotion as income.

Using your home and space

• A lodger (17): under the Rent a Room Scheme you can earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free from letting furnished accommodation in your main home (£3,750 if you share the income with someone else). Check your mortgage lender, landlord and insurer first. Our Rent a Room guide covers the details.
• Driveway or parking space (18): sites such as JustPark and YourParkingSpace list spaces near stations, airports, hospitals and stadiums. Location decides almost everything.
• Pet sitting and dog boarding (19): looking after pets in your home is popular, but in England home dog boarding as a business needs a licence from your council. Check your local rules and insurance.
• Childminding (20): a real job rather than a side hustle, with registration (with Ofsted in England), training and insurance, but it can provide a full income from home.

Tax: what you need to tell HMRC

• £1,000 trading allowance: if your total income from self-employment, freelancing, selling things you made or bought to resell, and online content is £1,000 or less in a tax year, you generally do not need to tell HMRC. All your trading income is added together, not counted per side hustle.
• Over £1,000: you must register for Self Assessment. You can either deduct the £1,000 allowance or your actual expenses, whichever is better.
• When to register: by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you started earning over the threshold. For income in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, that is 5 October 2027. Online returns are due by 31 January. Our Self Assessment guide walks through it.
• £1,000 property allowance: a separate £1,000 allowance for small property income, such as renting out a driveway or a parking space.
• Rent a Room Scheme: up to £7,500 a year tax-free from a lodger in your main home. You cannot use the property allowance on the same income.
• Digital platform reporting: since 1 January 2024, sites such as eBay, Vinted, Etsy and Airbnb must send HMRC details of sellers. For goods, platforms do not have to report you if you make fewer than 30 sales and receive about £1,700 (€2,000) or less in a calendar year. Services and rentals are reported regardless. Being reported does not by itself mean you owe tax.
• Selling your own unwanted things: not trading, and usually no Income Tax is due however many items you sell. Capital Gains Tax can apply only if you sell a single item (or a set) for more than £6,000 at a profit, and cars are generally exempt.
• Employed jobs: a second employed job is taxed through PAYE on its own tax code, so the trading allowance does not apply to it.

How to spot work-from-home scams

• Upfront fees: paying for a starter kit, training, a certificate or a "registration fee" before you can earn. Genuine employers and platforms do not charge you to work.
• Task scams: you are paid small amounts for liking videos, rating products or "boosting" apps, then asked to deposit money, often in crypto, to unlock bigger tasks or withdraw earnings. The money is gone once you pay.
• Fake job offers: an unsolicited message offering high pay for little work, an interview held only by text, or a job offer before any interview. Some are after your ID or bank details.
• Money mule requests: being asked to receive money into your account and pass it on. This is money laundering and can leave you with a criminal record and a closed bank account.
• Recruitment-based schemes: if the main way to earn is signing up other people, be very wary.
• Reporting a scam: if you have been targeted in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, report it to Report Fraud (the service that replaced Action Fraud in December 2025) on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, contact Police Scotland on 101. If you have paid money, call your bank straight away. MoneyHelper and the FCA's ScamSmart also have free guidance on spotting scams, and our guide to phone and financial scams covers common tricks.

Make the extra money count

Frequently asked questions