New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

s450

Is this the calculator I should use?:

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/calculator/

It stopped because when I insert that I am not British it does not continue.
Which is the calculator @trueblue1965 meant I should use ?

Or it's about the online benefit claim calculator of the Council of HB?

TrueBlue1965

S450, that better off calculator should do the better off calculation for you. As you already know that you are entitled to benefits. Just state that your British Your being treated as being British by JCP in terms of Benefits. So, manipulate the calculator so it gives you the information your after. Then manipulate the earnings to show how your Housing Benefit changes as you earn more from your business.

If your struggling with the Better off Calculations. Ask your JCP adviser to do the calculation for you. Its one of the first things i would suggest anybody should do before starting NEA. You need to know how your going to live until you start earning profit/earnings from your business! Key thing to remember is that your always going to be better off if your working and earning money!

When you sign off Benefits and on to NEA payments. You need to tell your local Council Housing Benefit Office that you are now self employed. You should still be entitled to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefits as you have not earnt any money yet. You should still get your Housing Benefit for the first month after you sign off and on to NEA payments anyway. This gives you a little time to get your Housing Benefits sorted out.

They should guide you though the things you need to do and what you need to keep them informed of and when. Make apointments and keep to them. Its very important that you keep good records of your earnings from your business. As they will want to know how much you are earning from month to month for the first few months until they can estimate your average earnings. Then, the information they will request should reduce in frequancy.

NEA payments have nothing to do with your earnings and are not Taxed. So, unless asked. I would say nothing about the payments to Housing Benefit. If they suggest that you are recieving NEA payments. Simply tell them that NEA payments have nothing to do with Housing Benefits and are not classed as earnings. Point them in the direction of the Government website information regarding NEA. It should only be an issue if you get an adviser at your local Councils Housing Benefit Office who does not now what they are doing.

Yes, everybody pays class 2 National Insurance Contributions.

Everybody who is self employed has to register with HMRC and pay Tax if you earn enough. You need to register with HMRC as soon as you sign off Benefits and sign up with NEA. You will be self employed from the date that you sign off Benefits and on to NEA payments. HMRC should advise you on NI and Taxation and what you need to do from that date. NEA payments are not Taxable. So, you will not need to tell them about the NEA payments.

As i,ve said. Its free money! A safety net for the first 26 weeks of being self employed!

TrueBlue1965

Well done and good luck, pinkypoopydoo. While you now feel that NEA was of little benefit. Would you still have started your business without NEA when you did? Simply knowing that there was a little help if needed gave you the confidence to go for it. The sucess is in the good idea and the hard work you have clearly put in to make things work to your advantage!

Im having fun this weekend. Making changes to a copy of my business plan and cash flow to show how i would use the new £2,500 loan from Startup to finance my business in the early months of trading. My NEA business plan is finished but im having to hold off signing off benefits and signing on with the NEA payments for a few weeks. Should be a simpler way of accessing the new Startup loans with NEA payments!

amy8191amy, are you having to amend your NEA business plan and cash flow to show the differences between the two starting loan amounts?

s450

@Trublue1965 many thanks for your explanation.
I have just used this online calculator here:

https://hammersmithandfulham.teamnetsol.com/index.jsp

Just to find out the way the sum I could be entitled for varies, I carried out the calculation different times introducing different amounts.
One thing that I do not understand is:

It seems that, if you are on JSA, which means around 280 pounds every 4 weeks, you would be entitled get the full amount of HB
BUT if you say that you are self-employed and assert to earn from your business less than what you would get from JSA (less then 280), nevertheless you would not get the full amount of HB but less.
Where is the logic in this matter ? :cool:

Andy2013

You really need to forget about JSA being " better off" starting a business will leave you stressed , broke and screaming blue murder as all manner of bad stuff happens with only you to sort out.

But when it does start coming together it is the best feeling in the world , except for child birth and a good tax rebate !!

In short yes being on JSA will leave you financially better of, madness I agree but blame Cameron , the real point is being self employed is wonderful if not hard work and yes the first few months will be harder but it makes you work harder also.

I was in the same place as you in January and I had to just take the jump and forget the benefits system so please don't think I am preaching but look forward , not back .

In theory until you earn a reasonable profit then it should not make very much difference to your HB but don't be scared, just work hard and focus on sensible goals that are achievable each month and maybe you will have to cut back in other ways to cover a bit of HB but you are self sufficient and that surely is much better.

Twelve months ago I was on JSA thinking of starting my business and this month I had my best month ever with a profit of near £3000 so it can be done.

TrueBlue1965

Thats where the NEA payments come in, s450. Your better off for the first 6 months of being self employed with the NEA payments. Thats 6 months to get your business off the ground and making some regular money. If your business plan is good and you work hard. And, with a little luck. In 6 months time. You will be earning enough to not need to worry about paying your rent though Housing Benefit.

Well done, Andy2013.

s450

@Andi2013 & @Trublue1965 many thank both of you very much!
It sounds motivating what you are telling me.
Of course my intent is to make my business profitable and successful :j. but I am just a bit worried for the start and getting less benefits than on JSA plus HB -which anyhow they are already not that much- makes me worry but you are right, I have to think positively and look forward with lots of energy to invest in my business and make sure that I won't need any benefit at all soon.

So, my Business Adviser has sent me an email in which he informs me that my business plan has been approved. Yeah!
Now I should register with the HMRC and sign off.
This is now again a quite thorny moment. In this forum it has already been pointed out that one should be sure that the NEA payment has been approved/officially started before signing off, OTHERWISE you will have delay or worse loose some money :eek:
The start is very important and I can't run the risk to have financial problems. So what do the experts say here? How should I proceed /OR BETTER SAY which is the smartest procedure?
My next sign -in day is in a week.

By the way, I already asked you this question but nobody said something, please allow me to ask it again :
My Business Adviser told me that I could prepare a list of a couple of items I might need for the start of my business and bring it to my JCE Agent. He said, it happened oft that they might be willing to give you about 200-300 pounds because they are content that you are about to sign off:rotfl:
Do not misunderstand me. At any rate we all here are in the same boat. It is not about sponging off but you sure as hell know how much difference every singly penny makes when you are broke:o

So do you think it could really work?
Guys I really appreciate your support.

Andy2013

Ok so point number 1 , it was a while ago I had the transfer between JSA and NEA but mine went smooth as much as I had around a 2 week gap between payments but my first NEA money was for 2 weeks so it all balanced out.

Once you sign the NEA forms your JSA claim ends and the transition is out of your control and all you can do is wait , hopefully for you it will be smooth.

Also once your JSA claim ends the HB / local housing authority will be told of this by the job centre and you are then into the self employed assessment for your HB payments as I talked about in a previous post.

Pont 2 , I have not heard of the job centre giving money to start ups although some might , probably worth a cheeky ask but don't hold out to much hope.

BUT when my JSA ended between that and NEA I did get a £100 back to work payment paid direct to my account without my request so this is the most likely financial help they will offer.

One of my many mottos is " if you don't ask you don't get ! "

s450

Andy2013 wrote: »

Once you sign the NEA forms your JSA claim ends and the transition is out of your control and all you can do is wait , hopefully for you it will be smooth.

Wait, so this means that I should first sign the NEA forms and then sign off my JSA but not the way around.
That is exactly the reason why I asked. In fact, I remember that somebody here in this forum mentioned it, that it, that you should first be sure you have signed the NEA forms before signing off.
So, I really need to ask my Business adviser for an appointment.
I hope, he will agree. Because in the mail he wrote the procedure sounds the opposite:

[FONT=&quot]This is to confirm your Business plan which you have developed through the support of the New Enterprise Allowance programme has been approved. Well done.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]NEXT STEP [/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]Contact your local Jobcentre to book an appointment or on your next sign on date present this letter to your advisor who will be able to assess and discuss with you the signing off from Job Seekers Allowance (or where appropriate other allowances i.e. ESA/ NI contribution credit etc) and be transferred to access the NEA allowance.[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Your JOB CENTRE PLUS should also be informed that your Business Plan has been approved.[/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Notification will also be sent to your JOB CENTRE PLUS that your Business Plan has now been approved so that you may follow all necessary procedures. [/FONT]
· [FONT=&quot]Register your business with HMRC http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/register.htm or Companies House and Open a business bank account.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Once you have [/FONT][FONT=&quot]signed off from your job seekers allowance (or appropriate)you will be entitled to:[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]Apply for up to £1,000 NEA Loan. If you wish to apply for this please ensure you indicate the following on your application [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]o [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Your Region: London & Home Counties [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]o [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Your Sub-Region: West London[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]o [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Mentoring Organisation: GLE OneLondon [/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]Receive post mentoring support from your mentor for up to 26 weeks during the early months of trading. [/FONT]

Andy2013 wrote: »

BUT when my JSA ended between that and NEA I did get a £100 back to work payment paid direct to my account without my request so this is the most likely financial help they will offer.

One of my many mottos is " if you don't ask you don't get ! "

Oh, you got 100 pounds without having to ask for? Was it just a luck or is it the normal procedure.
By the way, I like and completely agree with your motto:

If you do not ask you do not get.

bellkat

Once my business plan had been approved by my NEA provider, I made an appointment at the Job Centre to sign off JSA, and sign the forms for the NEA allowance.
It was all done at the same time and my NEA allowance only took a week to come through.

I claim HB and tax credits, I don't think the NEA allowance affects either. Lots of forms to fill in for both, but other than that all went smoothly.

Good luck s450, sounds like its all coming together for you.