New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

Andy2013

JSA is for people unemployed whom are looking for work but you are allowed to work up to 16 hours a week on the condition you tell the JC of each hour worked and each pound earned.

NEA is available to anyone over the age of 18 who has been on JSA for at least 6 months although some have been able to access the scheme earlier , and to be accepted you must have a feasible business idea and your JC advisor will then refer you onto the NEA scheme for the next stage if they feel you fit the criteria.

very trying , have a read of the past 6 months of posts on this thread as we have had mixed results with being on NEA and it certainly is not for everyone.

treenie01

Nea is available from day one now. Previously you had to be on jsa for 6 months but they realised that people weren't accessing it so they changed this. I only know this because I was only on jsa for 2 weeks when they referred me.

I have all my information now for applying for the loan which I'm going to complete today so I will let you know if I'm successful. I'm only applying for £600 but I'm on a dmp so we shall see.

This_Year

treenie01 wrote: »

Can someone help me though? How does the actual me payment get paid. Is it weekly, fortnightly or monthly

Mine is paid weekly.

This_Year

very_trying wrote: »

Also, I am on jobseekers and also have been running own business only working 10 hours a week, but want to start something different and been told that you can't claim it if you are already self employed? please help as they don't seem to know what they are doing??

AFAIK as long as the business you want to start is *totally* different from your current self employment then you should still qualify - but knowledge and info about NEA does vary so very much from area to area. There certainly was a man on my business course who was already self employed less than 16 hours while claiming JSA and was applying for NEA for his new business idea - I don't know if he started in the end so can't be 100% on that.

amy8191amy

Well... my 8 weeks of nea were up on Tuesday. Had an email on thursday from nea mentor saying business plan has been approved. So i emailed my mentor at start up to see how my loan application was doing... and after about 5 emails recieving no reply, she emailed back saying i needed to ammend cash flow and that if i cant show definate sales for months 1 and 2 then the board wont support it.
So... why has NEA said yes business approved... and then start up saying i need to change stuff or i wont get the loan.
This whole process has been SO confusing, ive been passed between NEA and Startup, both telling me conflicting things.
I can always get my nea mentor to reply to my messages but my start up mentor to be honest is a waste of space. Trying to get an appointment to see her and sort it out but it seems impossible.
Im really dissapointed with the whole scheme, the jobcentre dont have a clue what its really all about, nea and start up are suppossed to be working together but just pass you from one to the other, leaving you with a complete lack of support and frustration.
I could have had my business up and running before Christmas making some money but now im sitting around not knowing what to do.
It all started of so positivly aswell! Hope other people have a better experience.

Andy2013

Its a shame your having issues before you have evn started the 26 weeks of NEA .

Answers are getting short now and simply people have to ask WHY are they using NEA as a way of going self employed.

See if you can get WTC and use business link to help find finance / loans etc , and bypass this useless scheme as you have wasted over 2 months to get to a stage when you could already be trading and I can assure you the next 26 weeks will be no better.

The little bit of NEA weekly finance was useful enough but I would have still found a way to make it work without NEA, I had saved £300 from benefits and reinvested my profits to help build my business and I didn't get the loan as NEA ballsed it up ,and even though I was offered it a second time round I chose to go without it so I di not owe any loans .

I will say it again that ANYONE can start a business , you don't need NEA you just need to look around at other help offered and these are proven to be just as good and in a lot of cases better , to many people are clinging onto NEA as though there is no other hope and when they finally get there it proves to be almost always useless.

To anyone considering NEA if you are coming of JSA then if you don't already see if you can get HB / CTB and WTC and these can be enough to tide you over whilst you use business link to gain funding.

DONT BOTHER WITH NEW ENTERPRISE ALLOWANCE , unless you want early grey hairs .

TrueBlue1965

amy8191amy, its the Government and Start-up Loan Company,s information since 1st October that is very confussing. Read my last post on this subject. It took me and my NEA providers several weeks of fighting and arguing to get the correct answers re the new higher NEA loan. My NEA providers have now located the correct company for the new NEA loan. My loan is for £2,500 and is being processed.

JCP in my area dont know how the new NEA loan works. Start-up Loan Company are suggesting that they can offer loans to those on NEA. NEA are not being told who the new providers of the loan are. The Gov website and Start-up website giving confussing information on how to access the NEA loan.

Start-up Loan Company are NOT the new providers of the NEA loan. Start-up Loan Company can provide a top-up loan for those who already have a NEA loan and so have been trading but need extra finances to grow further. Thats where the confussion is. To get a Start-up Loan. You have to prove that your business is making money to access their loan

NEA is for those who are unemployed and have not been trading or at least. Not been trading for at least 6 months. So, there is no proof that your business will work other than what you put in your business plan and cash flow forecast. Thats why NEA and its loan terms and conditions and maximum size of the loan are different to Start up loans.

Your mentor is not the person to talk to about how to access the new NEA loan, amy8191amy. You need to contact your NEA provider and talk to the co-ordinator. Whoever is in charge of running NEA in your area should have the correct details about who the new proider of the NEA loan is and how to access it. Ignore the Start-up Loan Company mentor/provider. They are offering something with conditions that is not suitable for those on NEA.

If your NEA provider in your area tells you that Start-up Loan Company are the new providers of the new NEA loan. Tell them that they are wrong! They need to find out who the new NEA loan providers are and fast! If they are struggling with the details of how to find the new providers of the NEA loan. Tell them to contact ST Helens/Liverpool Chamber Commerce and get them to talk to the co-ordinators of NEA in my area. They are the Governments trail blazers scheme for NEA! They now have the correct details re how to access the loan in my area. So, they should be able to point your providers in the right direction on how it works in your area or at least what they need to do to find the new provider of the NEA loan! It will likely be a different loan company to mine depending on which area your in. However, its definately not Start-up Loan Company who are the providers of the new NEA loans!

The new NEA loan is for a maximum of £2,500 at 6% interest. You still get the weekly payments of £65 for 13 weeks then £33 for the final 13 weeks on NEA. In total, thats £1274 in payments on top of your loan. Your loan can be paid back over 12-36 months. 12 months interest only payments if you want. In other words. The terms and conditions are the same as before 1st October except that the NEA loan size has increased to a maximum of £2,500.

Your likely to need to make a few changes to your cash flow forecast to take in to acount the maximum £2,500 loan. Just means that your business grows a little slower im guessing. Your business plan has already been passed. So, no reason why it cannot be changed to show the maximum size of the loan without the need to be passed again. Your just making the loan size fit the business plan and cash flow forecast. Business plans and cash flow forecasts change all the time for those already in business. It should be reletively easy to make those changes as you started NEA thinking you could only access the old £1,000 loan and still make your business idea work!

treenie01

I'm just having problems getting the weekly payment. It's been 2 weeks since I got signed off jsa and I have no idea when I will be getting the £65 and without any money coming in I can't travel to jobs which defeats the object completely

Andy2013

Just go and speak to your JC they are best for contacting the payments office and rushing things along.

treenie01

I phoned them this morning, left a message for my adviser and didn't hear anything so I'll be phoning again in the morning if I don't have any money.