The NEIS application and acceptance process

NEIS is the government's assistance for those getting benefits who want to start their own business - New Enterprise Incentive Scheme.

I have known about NEIS for many years, as my ex-partner did this after we separated and I think I knew about it through friends before that as well. So I have known ever since we first went to Centrelink that we wanted to talk to someone about NEIS.

However, when I first went to see Centrelink, we had the waiting period to sit through. Also, we were told that you need to receive at least one benefit payment before you can talk to anyone about NEIS. I have since discovered that this is because you don't appear on the NEIS database unless you are receiving payments, which makes sense.

Then we had the paperwork fiasco which led to us having about 4 forms to complete and hand in over 2 days, so it was a while before we settled down enough to think after that and the NEIS question was put aside.

As part of the Centrelink process, you get sent for an appointment with a Job Services Australia supplier - the ones who actually help you to get a new job, rather than Centrelink who make sure you are doing the right things to get paid support from the government.

So, Dave has his first (this time - I already did this once when we first put the paperwork in...) - it's supposed to be both of us together, but for some reason the system wouldn't let the woman put my information in, so it didn't get done at that time, so the appointment for me never got made... (as I said - it was a saga...!) So basically he chats to someone for a short while, gives them his resume, they give him his Job Seeker ID and show him the Job Search website and we go home. This is the basic process for people out of work. His next appointment to see this is set for about 3 months time (I think).

Then my paperwork gets set up and I get an appointment. Same deal - go in, talk to someone, she finds my original resume and checks it hasn't been updated - all good. As part of that conversation, she asks whether I was made redundant or anything, so I tell her about the company going into liquidation - she checks the date that happens and tells me I'm in the wrong 'stream'... Turns out that 'normal' unemployed is Stream 1 - this means that the government knows you're out of work, but there's no great urgency to assist you more than making sure you know how to look for jobs and that there's no disability reason for you not to be employed - hence the process Dave went through and the time till the next appointment. Then there's Stream 2 - which turns out to include those made redundant since the end of Feb 2009 amongst other categories - and means that there's $500 allocated to assist you to find employment and you get fortnightly meetings to assist you. There are also Streams 3 and 4, but I don't know what they include - although you would assume that they include those who have disabilities that mean they need more assistance to find employment.

So my appointment must have been on Wed July 22. The woman I saw said that I had to go back to Centrelink and get them to put me in the right Stream, because that way I would get better assistance. But I knew that I was going away for a relaxing weekend on Fri morning and that I had other stuff that needed to be done on Thurs, so I wouldn't get there until Tues. Oh well - my loss - and only a few days. So I left and planned on going to Centrelink on Tues, which we had to do anyway to put in our forms.

So Friday while travelling my phone goes in and out of reception, which I don't worry about because I've got voicemail and no one is likely to need to get in contact with me anyway... When we get to Echuca, I have a voicemail message, so I call up to see what it's about. It turns out that there are two messages - and voicemail gives them to you from latest to oldest - so I get a message that, unless I can't make it, I have an appointment on Thurs 30 July to see Libby to get my upgraded employment plans kickstarted, then I get the message that the woman I saw on Wed had put through my paperwork herself and I would get a call from someone to make the appointment... All good!

So on Thurs, I go in for my appointment, thinking that this is just going to be more painful - I mean, I STILL don't really want a job with someone else's company, so having the employment people push that harder because they've got funding is only going to make it worse for me, right?
Wrong!

This woman is great - she obviously really enjoys her work and is genuinely there to help people (which, to be fair, the previous woman was as well, but this one is more bubbly and over the top).

So, very early in the conversation, I tell her that I don't really want a job... I want to start my own business with my partner - and I know about NEIS (I picked up the Swinburne NEIS brochure which was sitting on the reception desk while I was waiting) - so what can we do? Well - she leaps upon this and says right - self employment is your Employment Pathway Plan's key objective - ok - that's fine - we'll just put that in! Wow!! I can do this! I'm finally talking to someone who isn't fighting me, but actually supporting me/us in this plan! Yippee!

So, she tells me that Box Hill TAFE have their NEIS information sessions at 10am on a Friday and goes to get the Box Hill brochure - she couldn't find one either, so she just adds researching NEIS sessions to my plan and off we go. Sign away your life, add details into the computer system, get interrupted about a dozen times for her to do other things, print out the plan, sign away my life again, say goodbye and go home to look up how to get into the next day's NEIS session at Box Hill!

Back home, find basic details on Box Hill TAFE's website, but you can't book in online, so call them and book in over the phone.

Friday, I leave home about 15 mins early, as I know that I will probably have to park a distance away and walk in, so I'm there on time - but no one else is... 10.05am and the room is still locked - I decide I'll give them 5 mins more before I go downstairs to the office and find out what's happening. So, about 8 mins past, a guy arrives and apologises for having got caught up in a meeting and is therefore late. He says that there's going to be two of us in the session, but starts asking me about my business plans while he sets up and we wait for the other person to arrive. His reaction is basically positive, so that's good. About 10 mins later he decides that he'll start anyway, with just me, otherwise he'll be running too late for his next appointment. Just as he's starting, another guy comes in. Turns out he's not the expected other person, but adds his details to the list and Len (the guy running the session) asks a few questions about his business idea and checks he's on Centrelink payments (and therefore eligible for NEIS) - the answers to which are 'some kind of internet business' and no. So he's not eligible, so he leaves. So I get a personal information session...

Lots of chatting, there's a NEIS slide show that he has to go through, which covers the background of NEIS, the eligibility requirements, what will be covered in the course, what is required to fill out the application form (which you can only get by attending an information session), what resources you need to use to fill out the form and what you can do if your application isn't successful. There's lots of emphasis in this that the process is competitive and that not everyone will be accepted. Basically, the feel I get is that our business idea is ok, the fact that we've got so far on our own is a positive (where I thought that it may well be the point at which it all fell in a heap, as there is lots of emphasis on the fact that it has to be a new business, not an existing business) - the only thing he says is that we may have to sign a stat dec that we haven't been in business full time yet - which is ok, as we haven't. So, after he's run over again chatting to me, I leave with positive feelings to go home and fill in the application.

Because Dave and I have got so far in our planning, completing the NEIS application is actually quite straightforward. It mostly consists of collating the information that I've already got into the format that the application requires. The only real exceptions to that are the fact that you need to check with Business Victoria regarding any licenses that you require and check with the local Council for permits. So the first one can be done online, but the second one required an actual phone call. So most of the processes were done in fits and starts over the weekend, with the two phone calls made on Monday (there were two, because there is no actual category for computer software in the Business Victoria online system, so I had to call up to check what might be required - the suggestion being to look at Computer Game production as a reasonably equivalent category for that part of the business). As part of preparing the application, we decided to add a couple more categories of license costing for our software, and I stuffed up the calculations for this late on Sunday, so spent the rest of Monday updating those figures, then printing off all the supporting information in a readable/understandable way, along with the actual application.

On Tuesday morning, we were woken by a friend knocking on the door, which was a bit embarassing all around - Dave had intended to do a bike ride in the morning, so had told her it was fine to drop over after taking the kids to school, but he hadn't told me about it and he hadn't gone out for the ride either, so we'd both fallen asleep again after the alarm was turned off! Anyway, so she went through the application as well, but fortunately most of what she did was to fix up the wording - she didn't think that there was anything obviously missing, so that was good. So about 11.30am on Tues I was on my way to hand in the application.

In typical fashion for me, as the work for this was complete, I had migraine spots starting by the time I'd got to the second set of traffic lights on my way down to the TAFE... (I frequently get sick when I take a holiday, etc etc...) So by the time I got to the office to hand in the application, I really wasn't feeling very well and just needed to get back home while I could still see well enough to drive safely. This means that I was fairly rushed in handing it in.

The guy who ran the session on Fri was standing in the corridor outside the office where the application had to be handed in, but he was talking to someone, so I didn't interrupt him, just went past and back, then headed home.

Apparently he basically finished the conversation he was having, went into the office, took my application, read it and approved it on the spot! So I got the call that it was approved only an hour or two after I got back home, which was really great (and I was able to explain why I'd run away so fast). So the woman from Box Hill asked about Dave's eligibility for the NEIS and we got that sorted out, as I already knew that he was eligible from my conversation with Len on Friday. So she emailed Dave the application form, I emailed him my filled out version, he completed his version and we delivered the printed and signed version to Box Hill TAFE on our way to the library that afternoon!

Now all that was missing was the fact that Box Hill TAFE need an actual referral from the employment people before they can officially take one of the government allocated places (that they get paid for) for us - and that needs to be done by Fri at the latest in order for us to start the program on Mon 17 August. So I emailed Libby at the employment people that we needed appointments and why and waited for her response. Then Dave got work on Wed, so I had to email her again to state when he was and wasn't available... hoping that she'd still be able to fit us in before Friday!

So, the previous email reply I got from Libby arrived about 8.15am - it seemed reasonable to expect a similar sort of time for this reply, after adding some time for her to make the appointment(s)... So by 8.30am, I don't have an email - do I worry? What time do they actually start work? Hmmm.... probably 9am, so I split the difference and decide to phone at 8.45am. So I phone up, ask for Libby, get through and she says that she's just reading my emails - bonus, she actually knows what I'm talking about. So we organise an appointment for 10am on Thurs - that's ok, the update will be with Box Hill TAFE by Friday, so that's all good. Relax for Wed.

Thursday we attend the appointment at the employment place - find a couple of jobs we can apply for, as they have the jobs sections of the paper on the table, so the time spent waiting is not entirely wasted. Fortunately, as Libby knows what we're there for, the appointment goes quite quickly. She sets up Dave for NEIS, he signs his life away, signs his Employment Pathway Plan which now says he's got to do the NEIS training, then my plan gets updated for the same and I sign it - all done. All I need to do now is check tomorrow that the referrals went through to Box Hill TAFE and we're set to go!

So this morning I ring Box Hill TAFE - and there's no referral on the system. All the rest of the information is there, she can see it, but there's NO REFERRAL! So she tells me to ring Libby and get her to put the referral on the system... So I ring Libby, who is with a client, but says that as soon as she finishes, she will investigate what new thing on the system (which all changed on July 1) she has missed. Then she will ring me and let me know. And then I get to ring Box Hill again...

I swear, I can feel a stomach ulcer starting while I'm sitting here waiting for the phone to ring...

Because remember, if this doesn't happen today, we don't start the course until the middle of September!

Well, it didn't get done as soon as she finished with that client - or the next few - but it does sound like it got started as soon as she finished with that client. Because I know they're busy, I don't call back for a while - but that stomach ulcer is growing. So I end up calling again about an hour later - she's on the phone. Then I call again about 1.45pm - she's at lunch. So I call again about 2.55 - she's with a client, but I made sure that the message I left included the fact that I have to follow up with the TAFE after she does her bit, so it can't be left right to 5pm! No call, so ring them back at 3.35pm or so - no, she's still with a client and the receptionist doesn't know when that appointment started, so we can't estimate when she'll be free.... argh!!! I'm just about at screaming point by now!

3.55pm - no call. So I go and get changed, ready to drive down there and camp in reception until it's sorted out - final resort. Before I leave, I decide to call one more time - and get put through, and she's just managed to get both of our referrals processed - she's got the confirmation screen for me up in front of her and reads it out for me, as well as confirming that she saw the same one for Dave! With the changes to their computer system, the part that she did was correct, but there's another new section which ALSO needs to be done - this was the bit that was missed out yesterday. Turns out, she's been talking to Terry from Box Hill TAFE about the processes, so I probably don't need to confirm with her - except that for my peace (freudian slip - first typed that as 'piece'!) of mind, I need to get confirmation that it's ALL complete - which Libby agrees with.

So, phone Box Hill TAFE. Terry confirms that she's spent about 1.5 hours on the phone to Libby, helping her to go through the new process that's required! So it's been a saga all around! Anyway, when I'm first talking to Terry, nothing's come through to her system, but as we talk Dave's referral comes through, and then mine comes through about a minute later, so it's all good!!! Yippee!!!!

Well, Terry says that she'd already managed to put Dave's and my places through, somehow, knowing that she'd get the information today, but it's now all done the right way as well. So, she's missed today's mail, but our timetables etc will be sent out in Monday's mail, so we definitely start the NEIS course on Mon 17 August!

(And now, I need a break - getting this all done has been WAY more effort than it should have been and today's stress levels are through the roof!)