Rectify agency chaos and protect youth entrepreneurship
Recently, discussions on entrepreneurship subsidies for college students have continued to gain popularity on the Internet. "Entrepreneurship subsidy, you will get nothing if you don't get it", "Application Guide for College Student Entrepreneurship Subsidy", "The latest policy in 2026, the most complete subsidy list in history is here"... There is a variety of relevant information, and many of the posts about "Agency for College Student Entrepreneurship Subsidy" have frequent interactions.
The reporter's investigation found that the real money that was supposed to help college students start their own businesses has become "Tang Monk Meat" in the eyes of some intermediaries. The reporter conducted in-depth interviews focusing on the legal risks behind the agency and the governance path for irregularities.
Give rise to multiple disputes
"After the company was registered, I received a lot of phone calls and text messages. Some asked if I needed an accounting agency, some asked if college students were starting a business, and if they had applied for subsidies. Some people specifically recommended this kind of agency business, etc." Ms. Zhang, a college student entrepreneur from Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, told reporters that as soon as the company was registered, her phone information was leaked, which was unbearable.
Entrepreneurship subsidies are policy support funds established by the government to encourage and support college graduates and other groups to start their own businesses. In recent years, various localities have implemented one-time entrepreneurial subsidy policies, with standards ranging from a few thousand yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan. For example, Shanghai has made it clear that college graduates with Shanghai registered residence within 2 years of graduation, who first established a small and micro enterprise or other entrepreneurial organization for 1 year and have paid urban employee social insurance premiums for at least 1 person for 6 months as required, can apply for a one-time start-up subsidy of 8,000 yuan. Some regions will also increase entrepreneurship subsidies for college students as an important measure to recruit talents. Recently, Hunan Province issued a document clarifying the entrepreneurial subsidy standards for college students, and will provide an entrepreneurial subsidy of no less than 10,000 yuan to business entities established by college graduates and current students within two years of leaving school.
However, when these real money were put in front of them, some intermediaries smelled "business opportunities." "It is not illegal in itself for an intermediary to provide policy consultation, material compilation, application guidance and charge reasonable service fees." Wang Weiwei, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, believes that if an intermediary takes a high percentage of the financial subsidy amount and even helps unqualified people obtain financial funds through fictitious application materials such as entrepreneurial projects, business conditions, and personnel, the legal nature of this behavior is completely different.
Sun Shuangyue, deputy director of the Fourth Civil Division of the Chaoyang District People's Court of Beijing, discovered during the trial that this kind of agency behavior has given rise to four types of high-frequency disputes: some contract disputes caused by intermediaries receiving subsidies; some were not fully entitled to subsidies due to insufficient policy awareness; some fabricated materials to defraud subsidies, violating criminal laws; some employment was irregular and required other personnel to pay social security in order to apply for subsidies, but did not actually employ them. After that, other personnel claimed the existence of a labor relationship based on the characteristics of the employment, leading to labor disputes.
The reporter visited and found that although some areas require independent declaration of college student entrepreneurship subsidies, expressly prohibit intermediary agencies from false packaging and agency behavior, or provide legal risk warnings for agency behavior, many entrepreneurs are still hunted by intermediaries.
Hidden traps
The reporter’s investigation found that intermediaries generally seize traffic entrances by operating new media matrix accounts in batches and fully covering related search keywords, allowing college students to be exposed to intermediary advertisements first when they search for policies. Subsequent intermediaries induced applicants to give up independent declaration and choose to pay for the application by displaying false qualifications, hinting at "internal channels", and deliberately exaggerating the difficulty of application.
In response to the question of how entrepreneurs can check the authenticity of agents and identify startup subsidy scams, Li Chenrui, assistant to the third-level judge of the Second Criminal Division of the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court, sorted out three typical routines: First, exaggerating the difficulty of application and making up gimmicks such as "internal channels and audit guarantees" to create the illusion that "an agent is required to apply." The second is to adopt the "prepaid service fee + high commission" model. After the subsidy is received, a high proportion of the commission will be drawn, and at the same time, value-added services such as high-priced affiliated addresses, agency accounting, and intellectual property rights will be bundled and promoted. The third is to induce students who have no real need to start a business to cooperate in "subsidizing". During the service process, they deliberately avoid legal responsibilities, conceal the obligation to report truthfully, and downplay regulatory requirements such as material authenticity verification and door-to-door spot inspections. "College student entrepreneurs should be especially wary of the traps caused by these information gaps, see clearly the profit-making schemes of intermediaries, and do not trust intermediaries' 'guaranteed' promises, and beware of being harvested at all levels," Li Chenrui reminded.
In a contract dispute case decided by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court, in addition to charging basic tutoring fees, the intermediary also agreed to charge an "incubation service fee" of 20% after college students receive government entrepreneurship subsidies. After the entrepreneur received 100,000 yuan in government funding, the intermediary requested payment of 20,000 yuan. The court ruled that the high commission linked to the amount of government subsidies detracted from the effect of policy support funds directly benefiting entrepreneurs, and the relevant provisions were invalid because they violated public order and good customs.
"This case draws a line, that is, the law protects normal professional services and reasonable fees, but financial support funds should not be alienated into a 'business' that is divided proportionally by intermediaries." Wang Weiwei also reminded that applicants are responsible for the authenticity of the materials they submit and cannot avoid their obligations on the grounds that "the materials were made by an intermediary and I just signed." You can not apply for entrepreneurial subsidies, but you cannot leave legal risks in order to apply for subsidies.
Optimize policy direct access
In Taiping Old Street by the Xinjin South River in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Ms. Tan, a "post-00s generation", runs a coffee shop called "Drinking Ice Room". She is a beneficiary of college student entrepreneurship subsidies.
"According to local policies, the subsidy is applied for in two installments, each worth 5,000 yuan. When applying for the second time, there are more review conditions and the tax requirements are more stringent. I originally prepared the materials based on the experience of the first application, but when I arrived at the service point, I discovered that there were still a lot of new materials to add." Ms. Tan admitted that sometimes some very detailed and specific requirements may not be understood in time on the official website.
"If a large number of companies that rely on packaging to defraud subsidies pass the review, what should those who are down-to-earth entrepreneurs do? If the companies that really start their own businesses during roadshows are not as exquisitely packaged as the companies that defraud subsidies, will the probability of receiving subsidies be reduced?" Ms. Zhang expressed the common concerns of many front-line operators.
In February 2025, seven departments including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Opinions on Improving the Entrepreneurship Support System to Improve the Quality of Entrepreneurship", which clearly proposed the implementation of tax incentives and one-time entrepreneurial subsidy policies for key groups to help entrepreneurs reduce start-up costs and reduce operating burdens.
The reporter found out that college student entrepreneurs can apply for subsidies through both online and offline channels. Some places use the integrated information platform of human resources and social security to carry out data comparison and verification. Materials that can be verified by the system do not need to be submitted repeatedly, reducing manual verification and continuously improving the convenience of handling. After passing the review, the human resources and social security department or the financial department will allocate the subsidy funds to the subsidy recipients.
Sun Shuangyue suggested that before applying for subsidies, college students must check their entrepreneurial qualifications, time limit, and credit status, and submit application materials truthfully. When recruiting employees, we must strictly abide by the labor contract law, standardize the signing of labor contracts, pay social security in full, and resolutely put an end to false employment, social security affiliation, forgery of materials, etc. At the same time, college students who are interested in starting a business should take the initiative to learn various entrepreneurial subsidy policies and enhance their own awareness of fraud prevention. When applying for subsidies, you should base your application on real entrepreneurial needs. If you have any questions, consult the official website of the human resources and social security department, the 12333 hotline, or the government service window as soon as possible. Do not trust online agency advertisements to avoid being deceived.
"The application conditions, procedures, and materials for entrepreneurial subsidies are all disclosed on the official website of the human resources and social security department. The entire process is free. You can apply independently and there is no special channel." Li Chenrui reminded that if you have entrusted an intermediary to handle the application and find that the materials are fraudulent, you must immediately terminate all application processes and stop related application activities; if you have received subsidies, do not take chances, and you should take the initiative to truthfully explain the situation to the competent authorities and return the subsidy funds in full. Those who take the initiative to correct mistakes and actively recover public losses may be given a lighter, reduced or exempted punishment in accordance with the law.
In addition, experts suggest that relevant departments should further lower the threshold for subsidy policy inquiry and independent declaration, so that applicants can handle it as directly and conveniently as possible. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of personal information and curb the situation of "receiving intermediary calls as soon as a company registers" from the source.
Putting policy dividends into the hands of hard-working entrepreneurs and protecting the "seeds" of innovation and entrepreneurship are the original intentions of establishing entrepreneurial subsidies.
