New Enterprise Allowance: Applications
(asked on 4th February 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have applied to the National Enterprise Allowance scheme in each of the last five years.
Claimants who are interested in participating in the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) are referred by their work coach to a provider so that they can explore the self-employment options. Participation is voluntary.
The take up of the NEA is closely linked to the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, which begun to drop in 2013 – 2014. It is also worth noting that during 2013 the Department ran a high profile marketing campaign to promote the NEA, using posters & leaflets in jobcentres, YouTube videos, Webinars etc. which may also have influenced take up of the scheme in that year.
The table below shows how many starts there were with a business mentor in each financial year.
NEA mentor starts by financial year (1) | Number (2,3) |
April 2011 - March 2012 | 15,170 |
April 2012 - March 2013 | 31,880 |
April 2013 - March 2014 | 47,800 |
April 2014 - March 2015 | 39,830 |
April 2015 - September 2015 (six months) | 18,200 |
(1) Data Source - DWP LMS opportunities evaluation database October 2015 for all quarters, DWP PRaP database October 2015 for Jan-Sept 2015.
(2) Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
(3) It is possible that an individual may start to work with a mentor more than once and therefore appear more than once in these figures.