start-up-loan

---
name: start-up-loan
description: Works out whether the government backed Start Up Loan is actually open to you and then builds the application properly: an eligibility test against every published criterion with the date your 60 month window closes, the exclusion lists checked against your business type and your intended spend, the three documents the programme assesses you on, a per partner plan against the 25,000 and 100,000 pound caps, the subsidy position, and a repayment schedule at the published fixed rate. Use before you apply, and stop if the eligibility test fails.
---

# The government backed loan tested against every published rule first, then applied for with the three documents it is actually assessed on

You give this your trading start date, your legal form and partners, your residency and right to work position, what the money is for, your business plan draft, your cash flow figures and your household budget. You get back a line by line eligibility test against the programme's published criteria, the date 60 months from your first day of trading, a check of your business type and your intended spend against the two published exclusion lists, a per partner plan against the individual and business caps, the subsidy entry, a repayment schedule at the published fixed rate over the term you choose, and a finished set of the three documents the programme actually assesses. It will not tell you that you will be approved. The programme runs a personal credit check and its own viability assessment, and nothing on your laptop can see either.

## What it does

1. **Run the eligibility test before writing a word of the plan, because one failed line ends it.** The published criteria are that you are "18 years of age or older", "a current UK resident", "starting a new business or have been trading for up to 60 months", "unable to secure finance from other sources (self-declaration is ok)", that "Your business is based in the UK", that "You have the right to work in the UK", that "Your business type and loan purpose is eligible under terms of the scheme", and that "You pass our credit checks and you can afford to repay the loan". Mark each met, not met or unclear. One not met is a stop, and stopping on a Tuesday costs nothing.

2. **Calculate the date 60 months after your first day of trading and put it at the top of the file.** This is the only criterion that expires while you think about it. The window is "starting a new business or have been trading for up to 60 months", so a business that started trading on 12 March 2023 has until 12 March 2028 and a business that started in 2019 has already missed it. Write the first trading date, write its evidence, write the closing date. Two special cases are published and both preserve the window: buying an existing business is eligible "even if that business has been trading for more than 60 months under different ownership, provided you personally have not owned the business for more than 60 months", and a franchise is eligible on the same criteria as any other business.

3. **Check your business type against the published exclusion list before anything else, because hospitality sits next to two exclusions.** The list of business types that cannot be supported includes "weapons", "chemical manufacture", "pornography", "drugs", "illegal activities", "banking & money transfer service, and other FCA regulated activities", "private investigators that do not hold the appropriate licence", "gambling and betting activities", "property investment", "agents for third parties, where a third party earns the majority of the revenue or you would only be earning a commission", and "charities". A venue with gaming machines as its main revenue, or a business whose model is letting rooms as property investment, needs to read that list carefully rather than assume. The page also records that "other exclusions may apply" and that the list may be updated.

4. **Check what the money is for against the published excluded purposes, and be honest about it.** Start Up Loans "are designed to finance the initial costs of starting and developing a business, and therefore cannot be used to fund" three things: "debt repayment", "training, qualifications or education programmes", and "investment opportunities that do not form part of an on-going sustainable business". The first is the one that catches owners. If the real purpose is clearing a supplier arrears balance or paying off a card, this is not the product, and dressing it as equipment finance in the application is misrepresentation rather than positioning.

5. **Build the three documents the programme actually assesses, and build them in the order it reads them.** The published assessment weighs "the strength and viability of your business, demonstrated through the Business Plan and Cash Flow Forecast and the affordability of the loan through the Personal Survival Budget you submit with your application". Three documents, three questions. The programme provides free templates and states that it "can personally help you create your Business Plan, Cash Flow Forecast and Personal Survival Budget". Use the programme's own templates rather than a generic one, because an assessor reading a familiar layout finds the answer faster.

6. **Understand what the loan actually is, because it is a personal loan and that changes everything downstream.** It is "a government-backed personal loan available to individuals looking to start or grow a business in the UK". The borrower is the person, not the company. The loan is "unsecured, so there's no need to put forward any assets or guarantors to support an application", which means no personal guarantee is required here, and that is genuinely unusual. But an unsecured personal loan is still personally owed: in a partnership "each individual will be personally liable for their loan", whatever happens to the business. Write that sentence into the file in plain words so nobody is surprised later.

7. **Plan the caps across the partners before anyone applies, because the business cap bites after the individual one.** Each owner or partner "can individually apply for up to 25,000 pounds each", and "we can only lend a maximum of 100,000 pounds to any one business". Where there are multiple partners, each application is "assessed separately", the applicant must have "an equity stake (shareholding) and a controlling interest in the business", and "Where there are multiple business partners a 50% share must be held by the applicant/applicants applying". Write the intended amount per person, total it, and check both ceilings before the first form is opened.

8. **Build the repayment schedule at the published rate and the term you intend, and put the total repaid at the bottom.** The rate is a "Fixed interest rate of 7.5% p.a." over a "1 - 5 year loan repayment term", with "No application or set-up fees". Fixed means the payment does not move, which is worth a great deal in a business where nothing else is fixed. Build the schedule month by month, put the total of all payments at the bottom, and put that total into the cash flow forecast from step 5 so the two documents agree. Two documents that disagree on the repayment is the commonest self inflicted wound in this application.

9. **Hand the arithmetic, the criterion matching and the file building to Codex, and keep the reading of the rules here.** Write the inputs into a working folder, then run:

   ```
   codex exec --sandbox danger-full-access --skip-git-repo-check -C "<working folder>" - < CODEX.md
   ```

   Claude hands over the trading start date with its evidence, the eligibility marks with the owner's reason against each, the business type and intended spend, the partner list with intended amounts and shareholdings, the personal budget figures, the cash flow figures and the chosen term. Codex returns the eligibility table, the 60 month date, the exclusion checks, the cap arithmetic, the repayment schedule with the total repaid, the subsidy entry and the gap list. Codex never marks a criterion met that the owner has not marked.

10. **Record the mentoring and the subsidy entry, because both are real and both get forgotten.** Successful applicants "receive 12 months of free mentoring", which is a material part of the offer and worth booking rather than letting lapse. And the loan "would count as de minimis State aid under EU law or as a subsidy under UK law", dealt with "subject to the Minimal Financial Assistance provisions of the UK Subsidy Control Act 2022", where the maximum is 315,000 pounds "over a rolling period". Enter the amount into the subsidy ledger on the day it is drawn, so a future grant or scheme backed facility is assessed against a true total.

## Then it checks

1. Every published eligibility criterion appears as its own row marked met, not met or unclear, with the owner's reason beside it, and none is omitted.
2. The file states the first trading date, its evidence, and the calendar date 60 months after it, and states whether that date is in the past.
3. The business type has been checked against the published excluded business types list, and the intended spend against the published excluded purposes list, with the result stated for each.
4. The per partner amounts are listed with each applicant's shareholding, the total is stated, and both the 25,000 pound individual cap and the 100,000 pound business cap are shown as passed or breached.
5. The repayment schedule uses the published fixed rate and the chosen term, states the total repaid, and that same monthly figure appears in the cash flow forecast.
6. The file contains the sentence that each applicant will be personally liable for their own loan, and a subsidy ledger entry for the amount being applied for.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never state an approval rate, a typical assessment time, an average loan size used as a target, or how many applications succeed. No published figure exists that tells a single independent UK hospitality business anything about its own application, and an owner who believes one will either not apply or will take a decline as a verdict on the business rather than a commercial decision.
- Never predict whether the application will be approved. The programme runs "a personal credit check with a Credit Reference Agency (CRA)" and its own viability and affordability assessment, and neither is visible from outside.
- Never present the loan as borrowing by the company. It is a personal loan, each applicant "will be personally liable for their loan", and any document that blurs that is storing up a conversation nobody wants to have.
- Never describe the loan as needing a personal guarantee, and never let the absence of one be read as an absence of personal risk. The loan is unsecured and there is no guarantor, and the borrower still owes it personally.
- Never write an application that describes the money as being for something it is not. Debt repayment, training and education, and investments that are not part of an ongoing sustainable business are excluded purposes on the programme's own published list.
- Never assume the exclusion lists are complete. The programme states that "other exclusions may apply" and reserves the right to update the list, so an unclear case is a question for the programme in writing, not a judgement made here.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against the programme's own published criteria and terms and conditions, and for their own accountant to review on affordability, the subsidy position and the tax treatment of a personal loan used in a business. Where a partnership, shareholding or purchase of an existing business is involved it is also for their own solicitor. It is not advice, it is not an application decision and it is not a statement that the applicant is eligible.

## Built from
- The Start Up Loans Company, "Am I eligible?", https://www.startuploans.co.uk/about-the-loan/am-i-eligible, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the eight eligibility criteria in step 1, the 60 month window and the purchase and franchise cases in step 2, the excluded business types in step 3, the excluded loan purposes in step 4, the three document assessment in step 5, and the partnership shareholding and separate assessment rules in step 7.
- The Start Up Loans Company, "What is a Start Up Loan?", https://www.startuploans.co.uk/what-is-a-start-up-loan, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the personal loan nature and the unsecured position in step 6, the 25,000 pound individual and 100,000 pound business caps in step 7, the 7.5 percent fixed rate, the one to five year term and the absence of application or set up fees in step 8, and the 12 months of free mentoring and the subsidy treatment in step 10.
- Subsidy Control Act 2022, section 36, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/23/section/36, stated on the page as having no known outstanding effects, read 23 September 2026: the 315,000 pound minimal financial assistance threshold and the applicable period, in step 10.
- The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, article 60C, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/544/article/60C, stated on the page as up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 23 September 2026, read 23 September 2026: the 25,000 pound business lending threshold, which is why a Start Up Loan at or below the individual cap sits differently from a larger commercial facility and is recorded in step 6.
- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, "Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN)", version 1.2, https://www.experian.co.uk/legal/crain/, adopted 02 December 2024, read 23 September 2026: the search footprint mechanic and the statement that the agencies do not tell lenders whether to offer credit, behind the rule against predicting approval and the ordering of step 1 before any application.
- Financial Ombudsman Service, "Who we can help", https://sme.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/complain/can-help, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the micro-enterprise and small business thresholds, recorded so an owner knows a complaint route exists if the programme or its finance provider is ever in dispute.
- Department for Business and Trade and GOV.UK, "Finance and support for your business", https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the government's own route to the programme, shown on the page as "Apply for a Start Up Loan for your business", used to confirm the scheme is live and signposted on the day it was read.

# start-up-loan

## You are given
One UK individual or set of partners applying for a Start Up Loan. The first day of trading with its evidence, or the intended first trading date where the business has not yet started. The owner's mark against each of the eight published eligibility criteria, stated as met, not met or unclear, with the owner's reason written beside each mark. The business type in plain words and the owner's check of it against the published excluded business types list. The intended use of the money in plain words and the owner's check of it against the published excluded loan purposes list. The full partner or applicant list, and for each one: their name, their intended loan amount, their shareholding percentage, and whether they hold a controlling interest. The chosen loan term in whole years from one to five. The personal survival budget figures and the cash flow forecast figures the owner has already prepared, supplied as files. The amount and date of every other de minimis subsidy, minimal financial assistance or State aid already received by the business in the current financial year and the two before it. All judgement calls, including every eligibility mark, the exclusion list checks, the amount applied for and the chosen term, have already been made by the owner and are supplied to you.

## Produce
Write into a `./start-up-loan-output/` folder:

1. `eligibility.csv` with columns: `criterion_ref`, `criterion_text_verbatim`, `owner_mark`, `owner_reason_verbatim`. `criterion_ref` is E1 upward, one row per published criterion, in the order supplied. `owner_mark` is exactly one of `met`, `not met`, `unclear`. Where any row reads `not met`, add a final row with `criterion_ref` `RESULT` and `owner_mark` set to the single word `stop`.
2. `trading-window.md` recording, on separate lines and nothing else: the first trading date supplied; its evidence document name; the calendar date exactly 60 months after it; and whether today's date supplied by the owner falls on or before that date, stated as `within window` or `window closed`.
3. `exclusion-checks.md` with two sections. `Business type` records the business type in the owner's own words, each excluded business type from the supplied list on its own line, and a stated result of `not excluded` or `excluded: <matching line>`. `Loan purpose` records the intended use verbatim, each excluded purpose from the supplied list on its own line, and the same two-value result.
4. `partner-caps.csv` with columns: `applicant_name`, `intended_amount_gbp`, `shareholding_percent`, `controlling_interest`, `individual_cap_gbp`, `individual_cap_status`. `controlling_interest` is `yes` or `no`. `individual_cap_gbp` is always `25000`. `individual_cap_status` is `within cap` or `exceeds cap`. Add a final `TOTAL` row summing `intended_amount_gbp` across all applicants, with `individual_cap_gbp` set to `100000` and `individual_cap_status` set to `within cap` or `exceeds cap` against that business-wide figure.
5. `repayment-schedule.csv` with columns: `month_number`, `opening_balance_gbp`, `interest_gbp`, `capital_repaid_gbp`, `total_payment_gbp`, `closing_balance_gbp`. One row per month across the chosen term, calculated at a fixed rate of 7.5% per annum on the total amount from the `TOTAL` row of `partner-caps.csv`, with no arrangement fee added at any point. A final `TOTAL` row sums `total_payment_gbp` across every month.
6. `subsidy-ledger.csv` with columns: `award_ref`, `awarding_body_verbatim`, `amount_gbp`, `date_received`, `financial_year`. One row per item already supplied, plus a final row for this Start Up Loan application itself with `awarding_body_verbatim` set to `The Start Up Loans Company` and `amount_gbp` set to the `TOTAL` figure from `partner-caps.csv`. Add a `TOTAL` row summing `amount_gbp` across the current financial year and the two before it, and a `headroom_gbp` row showing 315000 minus that total.
7. `gaps.md` a numbered list of: every eligibility criterion marked `unclear`; any criterion marked `not met`; every applicant row where `controlling_interest` reads anything other than `yes` or `no` as supplied; any partner-caps row where `individual_cap_status` reads `exceeds cap`; the `TOTAL` row of `partner-caps.csv` where its own status reads `exceeds cap`; any figure supplied without a source document name and date; and any supplied text containing an em dash character.

## Rules
- Codex marks nothing itself. It transcribes the owner's eligibility marks, tests the two supplied dates and exclusion lists against the owner's own facts, totals the partner amounts against the two published caps, calculates the repayment schedule at the published fixed rate, and totals the subsidy ledger. It never decides eligibility, never chooses the loan amount or term, and never judges whether a business type or a loan purpose is excluded beyond a literal text match against the supplied list.
- Never estimate a figure. An applicant with no supplied shareholding percentage has an empty cell and a line in `gaps.md`, never an assumed even split.
- Never write a benchmark figure of any kind into any file: no typical approval rate, no average loan size treated as a target, no normal assessment time. None exists for a single independent applicant and none is to be recorded.
- Never write any statement, in any file, about whether the application would be approved. That determination rests on a personal credit check and the programme's own viability assessment, neither of which is visible here.
- Never describe the loan as secured, never invent a guarantor field, and never soften the personal liability position. The loan is unsecured with no guarantor, and each applicant is personally liable for their own share.
- Never carry a rate, a cap figure or a subsidy threshold forward from a previous version of any file. Use only the figures fixed in these instructions and the figures supplied this run.
- Use British English, GBP written as `GBP` or the pound sign, and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dash characters in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every quoted criterion, exclusion list line and business type is copied exactly, including its punctuation and capitalisation.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against the programme's own published criteria and terms and conditions, and for their own accountant to review on affordability, the subsidy position and the tax treatment of a personal loan used in a business. Where a partnership, shareholding or purchase of an existing business is involved it is also for their own solicitor. It is not advice and it is not a statement that the applicant is eligible.

## Return
The absolute path of every file written, the row count of each CSV, the eligibility result stating how many criteria read met, not met and unclear and whether the RESULT row reads stop, the first trading date and the calculated 60 month closing date with within window or window closed stated, the business type and loan purpose exclusion results, the TOTAL row figures from partner-caps.csv with cap status, the total repaid figure from the repayment schedule, the subsidy ledger TOTAL and headroom_gbp figures, and the gaps.md item count.