First question: are your jobs salaried or non-salaried? The way the financial requirement is calculated will be different, depending on which one.
Salaried: your contract gives an annual fixed salary for working a specified number of hours per week - so your weekly payslip always has the same basic pay on it.
Non-salaried: you are paid by the hour and your income varies depending on how many hours you have worked.
If you are salaried, then they take the lowest payslip in the 6 months and multiply it by 12 to get the income requirement - so if any payslip is less than £1,550 gross salary (before tax), you will not qualify for the visa.
If you are non-salaried, then they take the monthly gross pay (before tax) average of your 6 months of payslips and multiply it to find the annual income.
My first question is, do tips count towards the requirement? I make around £30 in tips per week, which obviously adds up and makes a big difference when the requirement is borderline. Tips are paid in cash to me and are not on payslips or taxed.
No, tips won't count. The money needs to be shown on the payslip in order to be used and even then, not everything on the payslip can count.
For example, I get a basic salary, plus a fixed annual shift allowance (I work in a 24/7 office). I also get weekend hours when I work weekends, which are variable, and then recently I'd been getting overseas allowances for working abroad, which was only temporary as I'm back in the UK now.
For the financial requirement, my basic pay would count and I believe my fixed shift allowance would count too. But, my weekend hours and overseas allowances would not count towards the financial requirement because they are variable/temporary and not guaranteed in the future..
My second question is regarding showing I am being paid. I am given payslips though they are weekly not monthly and I am currently paid in cash, which I then deposit. Is this acceptable? Will they payslips on their own be substantial or would evidence of the money going into my bank be more supportive?
No, it is an absolute requirement to provide both payslips and bank statements covering the 6-month period.
If you do not include bank statements, the visa will be refused.
The bank statements need to show that the money on your payslips has been paid into your bank account each month/week.
Finally, if I were to have a 'fluke' month where I was under £1550 would this be taken into consideration as a fluke month if all the others were above and pointed towards £18.6k PA?
As I mentioned at the top of my post, it depends on the type of employment.
If it is salaried, then they take the lowest payslip as your income for the visa, so the 'fluke' month of below £1,550 will taken as your main salary and you will not qualify for the visa.
If it is non-salaried, then the 'fluke' payslip may not affect things, as long as your other payslips, when averaged, give a total annual salary of £18,600 or more.
So, say for example, you earned in the 6 months:
£1600
£1525
£1600
£1600
£1600
£1600
If you are salaried, then they take the £1,525 amount and multiply it by 12 to get the income used for the visa.
£1,525 x 12 = £18,300... so you will not qualify for the visa.
If you are non-salaried, they take the average monthly amount earned and multiply it by 12 to get the income used for the visa.
So, all 6 months together = £9525.
And £9,525/6 = £1,587.50
Then £1,587.50 x 12 = £19,050... so you will qualify for the visa.