Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many businesses have been created with help from the New Enterprise Allowance; and how many of those businesses have sustained operations for more than 52 weeks.

Latest statistics show that since the launch of New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) in 2011 to the end of March 2014, there were 46,000 NEA weekly allowance claims. The weekly allowance is payable when the participant closes their claim to benefits and commences trading which is a proxy measure for business starts created by the scheme.

We do not have data on the numbers of NEA businesses trading for 52 weeks. However, an analysis of the benefit status of NEA participants, published in 2013, highlighted that of 3,000 people who took part in the scheme in the first year, 78% had remained off benefit continuously for 52 weeks after claiming the NEA weekly allowance.