New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

pinkypoopydoo

I agree with TrueBlue - while you may only be doing 14 hours for the agency, you can easily fill another good few hours next week doing other things for your business. When I phoned TC I said I'd be doing 20-30 hours a week initially, and they said I had to give them an average, so I suggested 25 hours a week would be a good guide initially. I spend about half that time on contacted clients, the other half on website building, visiting potential clients, my own bookkeeping, etc.

When you register with HMRC it asks for the date self employment commences - I'm not entirely certain if you can put in a future date - it might be worth waiting till next week.

Andy2013

WantToBeSE I would do the SA app next week, there is no real rush at the moment its just good to tick it off as done.

And as for WTC the form simply asks how many hours you think you will work , no one will check or ask for proof its purely a system process so say your doing over 30 hours which along with your 14 hours is totally reasonable and you will be fine, plus you will soon find your easily doing 30+ a week so get the ball rolling now.

As others have said "work" is anything related to your business , only you know how much effort you put in.

I spend probably 30+ hours a week at a computer sourcing stock so if I added up everything I do I would not be surprised if I hit 50 hours a week easily.

WantToBeSE

OK, thanks everyone. I will phone and ask for a TC form this week. And do the SA next week

s450

WantToBeSE wrote: »

....[...]... you will be assigned a business mentor, who (HOPEFULLY) see you weekly over a period of a max of 6-8 weeks. During this time, you will work on your business plan with them.
When/If they deem your business idea viable, they will inform the jobcentre, who will ask you to come in for an appointment to get your claim for JSA stopped, and then arrange your NEA payments. From the day that your claim for JSA stops, you are able to start trading as a business....[..]...

Thanks @WantToBeSe & all of you too.

Please correct me if I am mistaken:
to sum up:

1) my adviser is going to refer me to a business adviser.
2) It will take 6-8 weeks to prepare a business plan, and in the meantime I will be on JSA but I won't have any sign-in appointments BUT appointmens with my business adviser.
3) Provided that the business plan will be accepted, I will have to sign off my JSA and I will get NEA for 6 weeks. Afterwards, ciao ciao benefit, my business should work well.
As far as HB is concerned. For the period of JSA I will receive it automatically. When I changed to NEA I will have to inform the change BUT as far as I have understood, I would receive the HB also during the NEA-period.

Have I understood correctly? Is this the procedure? :T

As far as the Oystercard is concerned:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14423.aspx
According to what @WantToBeSe said, it will take 6-8 week to pass from JSA to NEA, provided that my business plan will be successful.
That would mean to me that I would then be eligiable for the oystercad-discount.
Please do not misunderstand me. It's not that I have an itch for the
oystercard-discount but if you consider that it is extremely expensive to travel and because I am still at the beginning of starting my own business, the travel-discount would be a great help, wouldn't it? It should be understandable.
Anyway, I look forward to meeting my advisor soon.

pinkypoopydoo

If you are accepted, you get NEA for 6 months, not weeks. 13 weeks @ £65, followed by 13 weeks @ £33.

No idea about oyster cards though

s450

I see. It sounds more plausible.
So I was confused!
6-8 weeks is the period during which I will deal with my business mentor in order to develop a business plan while still on JSA. Afterwards I will get NEA for 6 months - provided that my business plan will be accepted.

BigAl127

The HB during your NEA period will depend on if your able to take Wages/drawings out of your business and obviously the amount.

pinkypoopydoo

s450 wrote: »

I see. It sounds more plausible.
So I was confused!
6-8 weeks is the period during which I will deal with my business mentor in order to develop a business plan while still on JSA. Afterwards I will get NEA for 6 months - provided that my business plan will be accepted.

That's correct - and while you are on your 6-8 weeks period, developing your business plan, your job centre adviser *should* alter your Job Seekers agreement, to remove all mention of steps for looking for work, and reword it so it says you should be working on your business plan and staying in contact with your mentor.

pinkypoopydoo

Oh, and as for HB - I don't know about HB, as I have a mortgage, but my local council deal with HB and council tax reduction with the same form (is that normal? Not sure!)

I filled in the form, and you have to fill in an extra form for self employment figures, and they calculated my council tax reduction based on those figures. I was still entitled to CTR, at almost the same level as I was on with JSA - I assume if I'd been on HB it would have been the same? It only took a couple of days to sort it all out.

s450

Today was my sign-in day. But my adviser did not seem to be reliable today. Last time he told me he would explaint to me everything concerning the NEA and refer me to a business adviser.
Nothing happened today. He said, he did not have time for that today. At least he gave me an other appointment for next week. So, next week I will finally be referred to a business adviser.
So, I still have to find out how it works with the HB during the NEA but there is still enough time for that since it will take -accordingly to your information- between 6-8 weeks to before I sign off from JSA.
When am I supposed to register with:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm
Immediately or when I start with the NEA?

By the way, how GOOD must be a business plan in order to be accepted? And what is actually ment with "GOOD"?