New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

Andy2013

Indeed it has , grab a cup of coffee and have a browse through the last 6 months or so, lots of info and opinions on the scheme and many questions answered.

beansy

Hi

I have just been reading through these posts and I think my son needs to do the same as he has been seeing an Advisor at our local Working Links for months now with the intention of becoming self employed on NEA but nothing seems to be happening. His last comment to me this evening was that he was thinking of contacting HMRC to enquire about becoming self employed!

He has completed over 2 yrs of an electrical apprenticeship but has been finding it quite difficult to get any work other than the odd week or two as an electricians mate, so he was thinking if he can go self employed he will be able to take any form of labouring job in addition to a mates job to make up the hours.

I will suggest he starts at the beginning of this thread but in the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions on who it would be best for him to liaise with, ie JC, working links or HMRC please?

Many thanks

terryfied

Bradqwer and anyone else thinking of doing this scheme, I urge you to think twice. I've been on NEA for several months and signed off on the 20th of last month.
My business is totally dependent on the loan and my main concern from the start was that there would be no interruption to my housing benefit. I had been homeless for a year before getting my present accommodation and the prospect of being homeless again is one I cannot abide.
Since I signed off, I have received NO NEA payments, i.e no £65.00.
I have not received the loan even though it was apporoved a week ago, and I've now been told the job centre have not yet confirmed that I've signed off, and even when they do, my application needs to go for further approval then the loan will take a further 3 to 5 days before going into my account.
In the mean time, I have no money to live on, and in all honesty I don't know how I'm going to eat tomorrow let alone the rest of the month.
What has pushed me over the edge here is the fact that even though I had been told to the contrary, my housing benefit has now been suspended. I was assured all the time that this would not happen,and even two days before signing off, I spoke to the housing department, who also assured me there would no interruption.
You should also understand that only the NEA team who you deal with, know how NEA works. You could ask the same question to 10 people at the job centre or housing benefit office and get 10 different answers. The only time you know for sure is after signing off, when you're in at the deep end.
I spent my last benefit money on thigngs I needed to help start the business, thinking I would repay myself from the loan. Now I have now food and will not receive an NEA payment for at least another week, this is really unacceptable and it's not the way we're told.
Also, I've committed myself to a home phone contract now and will be billed for it any day now. I have no hope of paying this and would not have taken out such a contract if staying on benefits, but how do I pay now? I also have £160 to pay cash on delivery for leaflets ordered, and no way of paying.
I had no choice but to fill in a rapid reclaim form online and cancel this dreadful NEA scheme which has just left me high and dry, and in so much trouble now.
Understand these four things before decided to go on this scheme:
1. No one outside of NEA will give you an honest answer to any question you may have about the scheme but they will tell you what they think you want to hear in order to sign off.
2. You will NOT get an NEA payment until at least three weeks after signing off.
3. It will take at least one month after signing off to get the loan.
4. Your housing benefit WILL be affected, and you will have to spend a great deal of time taking receipts, bank statements and business plans to the housing office.
Basically from day one you'll be left on your own, up the creek without a paddle and you'll get a phone call from the housing benefit office telling you your claim has been suspended pending hours of running around filling in forms for them.
Take my advice, I'm quite likely to end up in hospital tonight, because the stress caused by the prospect of homelessness is destroying me right now.
The government have to understand that we are humans and we are trying everything we can to get out of this awful situation of unemployment, and to offer a scheme full of empty promises to hopefuls, then to pull the plug at a whim is disgusting and inhuman. The more it sinks in what they've done to me, the more I feel like vomitting.

TrueBlue1965

I feel sorry for you, terryfied. However, you have made some basic mistakes. You dont sign off benefits until your NEA provider has informed JCP that your business plan has been passed. Only when your loan is also agreed and signed do you sign off benefits. Not sure how you could have even been allowd to sign up to the NEA payments part of the scheme unless JCP have been told that your busness plan had been passed. Your problems are not because of your NEA provider. JCP should not have allowed you to sign off benefits or sign up for NEA payments!

The loan is subject to your business plan being signed off by your NEA provider. You then go though the loan process which takes 2/3 weeks. Once your loan agreement is signed and sent back to them. You then sign off benefits and sign up for the NEA payments. The loan provider then send a fax to JCP to confirm that you have signed off benefits and have signed up for NEA payments. The loan should then be in your bank within a few days of JCP replying to the fax. Nothing should be done until JCP have been informed that your business plan has been signed off. JCP are the people at fault!

It sounds like you need to make a complaint to your JCP. Talk to a manager and explain that they have not received confirmation that your business plan has been passed. So, you should not have signed off benefits and should not have been allowed to sign up for NEA payments. Im not surprised that you have not received NEA payments. Its their (JCP) mistake. So you should get all your benefits paid back in full. A manager should be able to get a payment of benefits within a day or two (sometimes same day) to cover your basic living costs until your benefits catch up again in about 3-4 weeks. You should also be allowed to sign up for NEA payments again once JCP get confirmation that your business plan has been signed off. JCP should also by this point have the fax from your loan provider. It should be a simple process of signing off benefits again and signing up to NEA payments on the same day and then get the fax sent to the loan provider to push though the loan in a few days. The loan will sorts your problems out until the NEA payments kick in and your back dated benefits are paid. You could also get your business moving.

Im confussed as to why your housing benefit has been suspened after only 3 weeks of not signing on benefits. Your self employed but earning nothing yet. Thats normal for the first month or two of any business! Your entitled to housing benefit for the first month after sgning off JCP benefits. NEA payments have nothing to do with earnings. It should be easy to show that your working on your business even if its just door to door and internet marketing but you have no sales/jobs yet. Marketing and looking for sales/jobs is working on your business and should be easy to argue!

I,ve just signed my loan agreement and sent it back today. I sign-on JSA again on Friday (Hoping its the last time). The loan provider are suggesting that I sign off benefits and sign up to the NEA payments on Monday. Im talking to NEA, JCP and the loan provider to get everything done correctly. However, if JCP have not been told that my business plan has been approved. I will not be signing off benefits. Last week JCP where saying they had not received anything from my NEA provider but the NEA provider are saying they have informed JCP. My business plan was signed off about 4 weeks ago. So, a JCP manager will be getting involved on Monday if there is still a problem.

Andy2013

terrified , another disaster, feel very sorry for you mate.

The main problem always stems back to JCP ,NEA and HB not all understanding how the different schemes work so quite often it is impossible to get clarity on all fronts from 1 single department and that should be totally possible , its down to a badly run programme with a total lack of training.

The process should be simple, ask about NEA, run idea through with JCP, get put forward to NEA for the induction, get business plan agreed, apply for loan, stop JSA and enter NEA agreement and payments should start 7-10 days after this point.

Sadly everyone seems to have a different version of events.

terrified , your trying your best to get life on track and these fools are totally ballsing up what should be a simple process.

I fully agree with your post and that we are largely left " up the creek without a paddle"

Here is a business idea ............ maybe we should start selling paddles at the top of s*** creek :beer:

Everyone needs one at some point

terryfied

Thanks for your replies.
My business plan had been approved since 1st October. I was then given 13 weeks in which to decide a signing off date. Also, I had to have my first contract in before being allowed to sign off.
I got this contract, it was a small maintenance contract where I would do basic repairs on tenants flats when and if such repairs came up, and this contract was being handed over to me on the 2nd of December.
I explained to my mentor that I was now in a catch 22 because I can't get on with my main business without the loan, and could he advise me as to what to do.
He suggested I sign off as soon as possible, and to put the loan application in at the same time. I signed off on the 20th Nov and put in the loan application, and got all the papers in the post which I signed and returned. The very next day I had a phone call saying they had received the papers back already and my loan will be in my account in the next few days.
At this point I used JSA money to buy some basics, a desk I purchased for 20.00, a landline telephone for 17.00, web hosting, and a domain name.
Prior to that, I had to pay a solicitor 10.00 to certify a true copy of my passport and address, because the job centre refused to do so. They had said they are not supposed to do that, and after a letter from my mentor saying I could not sign off unless I had those certified copies, my adviser reluctantly signed them, but refused to do so in the format required by the loan company, which was the same as not signing them at all.
This may not sound like a lot of money, but when you're on JSA and this money doesn't come back in a few days as promised, it's the difference between eating or not. As it stands, I had my last meal last night and have no idea how long I can last or will have to last before my next meal..
You say that the loan process takes 2 to 3 weeks, and it seems that is the case, but this is not told to you before hand. I asked so many times and was never told this. Had I have known, I would not have signed off in December. I'm planning on running a service company and the worse time of the year for me is halfway through November until the end of February. Without the worry of rent and with an allowance of 65.00 per week, I could still earn enough through the business to tide me over until the 'good' season. But everything depended on the transition being as smooth as possible. It's not been smooth at all, in fact it hasn't happened at all, I've been left in mid air. If I hadn't have made phone calls yesterday, I would still be in the dark because no one would have contacted me.
As for housing benefit: When I signed off and the nea2 form was completed, I had to complete the back of the signing book. It seems that DWP have now treated this as a standard signing off for someone who has entered into employment, because I've had all the letters and texts acknowledging that I've signed off, but I've not had any letter acknowledging that I'm now on NEA. It seems the DWP have informed housing benefit that I'm no longer receiving benefits, which is why my claim was suspended.
Since telling HB yesterday that I'm on NEA, they have now given me a one month extended payment, pending copies of bank statements. So at least I'm alright until the end of the month, but I'm terribly distressed at the fright I've had about losing housing benefit altogether.
I think I mentioned that I had been homeless for a year ending in March 2013, and I cannot entertain the idea of being homeless again. It's caused me so much distress that for the first time in my life, I've felt like jumping from a building. I'm sitting here writing all this as it's keeping me calm, but any time homelessness pops into my head, I start losing grip on my sanity. I've never experienced anything like this before, I think they've put me on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
I spoke to the payments department today and yesterday and was told that i should of been informed that my first nea payment would be 5 days after the end of my claim. Well I signed off on the 20th, with the last day of my claim being the 29th. That still means I should have received a payment, but I've been told I won;t receive payment until wednesday at the earliest.
Also, I was told that the job centre failed to respond to a fax request by the loan provider for confirmation that I'd signed off, so this entire hold up is due to the job centre failing to act. This is my life they're playing with, I've put everything into this and I'm left here with nothing but debt.
160 pounds for leaflets I can't pay for. A monthly landline contract, a web hosting account, etc, etc. What am I to do now? Why has a government run scheme landed me in so much trouble? And why don't housing benefit and the job centre know how NEA works?
I've never noticed an instability in my mental capacity prior to now, but right at the moment I don't trust myself tonight. Does anyone have any idea what would happen if I were to go to the hospital and tell them that I don't trust myself tonight?

TrueBlue1965

Get yourself to JCP first thing in the morning. Ask for a manager and explain that the loan company have sent a fax to JCP to confirm that you have signed off JSA. It needs to be completed and sent back to your loan company today to allow your NEA loan to be transfared in to your bank so you can start your business. If the back office at JCP say that they have not received the fax. Phone your loan provider and request that they send another fax to JCP at once. I would suggest saying that you will phone them again in an hour to confirm that the new fax has been sent. Make sure you get confirmation that the fax has been sent. Then, inform the JCP manager that a new fax has been sent and ask the manager to confirm with back office that the new fax has been received. Its only 5 minutes work to confirm that you have signed off JSA and to send the completed fax back to the loan company. Ask to be told when the fax has been sent by JCP. Then, confirm with the loan company that they have received the returned fax from JCP. I know its a pain to do but you need to take control and do the leg work to push this fax back to the loan company signed and completed. Best way of dealing with JCP back office is to talk to a manager and get them to get the answers you need. You need to take control but be professional in the way that you do it.to keep the JCP manager and loan company on your side. If you direct everything and confirm everything when things are being said that they have been done. Then, they normally get done very quickly. People respond well when your stepping on their toes. In a nice way of course

Housing benefit is sorted so stop worrying about it. By next month it will all be sorted but you have to keep them in the picture as to what your doing and how much your earning. Housing benefit is based on your earnings. So, you will be fine as long as you do as they ask and keep them informed. :j

You have survived harder times than now. So, im sure you can manage for a few more days. Take control and this time next week you will be sorted and looking forward to a new start. Then the hard work begins

terryfied

Thanks for that trueblue. I have been through much worse things in my life, but I normally take them as they come, I don't generally let things affect me.
I find it hard to understand how this has disturbed me so much, but after a years homelessness the thought of being back there seems to terrify me. After writing the last post, I seemed to calm down quite a lot, maybe because I got it out of my system so to speak.

I think that anyone else who wants to go on this scheme should have a careful read of all the posts on this thread before taking the plunge, they need to know how bad it can get as well as how good it could be.

Let's see what tomorrow brings, but thanks for your response, that helped quite a lot.

Andy2013

Well if your attitude is anything to go on, then you are going to succeed big time , I really hope it works out, which it will because your a fighter, not a dreamer . :beer:

This_Year

terryfied wrote: »

Thanks for that trueblue. I have been through much worse things in my life, but I normally take them as they come, I don't generally let things affect me.
I find it hard to understand how this has disturbed me so much, but after a years homelessness the thought of being back there seems to terrify me. After writing the last post, I seemed to calm down quite a lot, maybe because I got it out of my system so to speak.

I think that anyone else who wants to go on this scheme should have a careful read of all the posts on this thread before taking the plunge, they need to know how bad it can get as well as how good it could be.

Let's see what tomorrow brings, but thanks for your response, that helped quite a lot.

Are you any further forward?