Risks of starting up a business.

Worztron

Hi.

I'm on a course at the moment and a few guys are talking about the possibility of starting up a business after the course ends. I have not said that I would join or reject it yet as I usually think things over for a long time first.

My biggest concern is if the business failed, let's say 6 months down the road. Would we be unable to claim social welfare ever again?

It's a massive decision and the risk seems to me anyway to outweigh the pluses.

18MonthsaSlave

I'd like to know the answer too.
I have a family member who wants to use the BTWEA scheme.
To be honest I think the business they want to start up will never support them but to their credit they would do anything to get off the dole and back in to work.
50 or 60 % of businesses fail within the first four years so the odds are not good.
What happens if the business fails. How difficult will it be for them to claim unemployment assistance again which is all the income they have at the moment?
Obviously, I'd hope for the best and would like to see the business succeed but I don't want them left in a position where their business has failed and they have no income at all.
This is further amplified by the experience they had getting UA in the first place. The local social welfare office simply wouldn't engage with them and family members had to engage with the social welfare office on their behalf before this family member was given the UA to which they were clearly entitled to.
At my most pessimistic I think they are just being helpful at the moment so that they can improve their unemployment statistics by "1" and will not want their unemployment statistics to disimprove by "1" if they have to recognise this family member as unemployed again.

Worztron

18MonthsaSlave wrote: »

I'd like to know the answer too.
I have a family member who wants to use the BTWEA scheme.
To be honest I think the business they want to start up will never support them but to their credit they would do anything to get off the dole and back in to work.
50 or 60 % of businesses fail within the first four years so the odds are not good.
What happens if the business fails. How difficult will it be for them to claim unemployment assistance again which is all the income they have at the moment?
Obviously, I'd hope for the best and would like to see the business succeed but I don't want them left in a position where their business has failed and they have no income at all.
This is further amplified by the experience they had getting UA in the first place. The local social welfare office simply wouldn't engage with them and family members had to engage with the social welfare office on their behalf before this family member was given the UA to which they were clearly entitled to.
At my most pessimistic I think they are just being helpful at the moment so that they can improve their unemployment statistics by "1" and will not want their unemployment statistics to disimprove by "1" if they have to recognise this family member as unemployed again.

Hi 18MonthsaSlave.

If you like, please post here how your family member gets on.

Cheers.