Academy national non-domestic rates (NNDR) claims

Question

Accepted Answer

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025. All activity has moved to the Department for Education (DfE). You should continue to follow this guidance.

Introduction

The academy national non-domestic rates (NNDR) claim form for 2025 to 2026 opens on 1 April 2025.

These instructions are to help academies and trusts submit a claim for NNDR to the Department for Education (DfE).

NNDR is a tax payable on non-domestic property set by the government and collected by the relevant billing authority. All educational settings under the ‘academy programme’ are entitled to tax relief from the billing authority on a significant portion, currently 80%, of the NNDR. We allow these educational settings to claim funding for the remaining NNDR amount.

Eligibility to claim

New claims for 2025 to 2026

From 1 April 2025, some academies will no longer need to claim NNDR as your billing authority will claim on your behalf.

It is important that you check whether you still need to submit your own NNDR claim by referring to the ‘schools and academies’ tab of the schools and academies - confirmation of your national non-domestic rates payment process for 2025 to 2026 spreadsheet. Column K ‘NNDR claim status for 2025 to 2026’ on this spreadsheet tab confirms the payment process your billing authority will be implementing as of 1 April 2025.

Schools and academies whose billing authority is implementing the central NNDR payment process

Where your billing authority is opted in to the central NNDR payment process and you are not making a claim, DfE will pay your billing authority directly. Your billing authority will send you an invoice - this is for your information only.

You will also receive a remittance advice from DfE with a balancing credit and debit. On the remittance advice you will be provided with the following information:

a credit which will be marked as ‘FOR INFOR NNDR GAG adjustment yyyy-yyyy’. This should be matched against the ‘for information only’ invoice you received from your billing authority
a debit marked as ‘FOR INFO NNDR Bill adjustment yyyy-yyyy’. This should be matched with the amount DfE has paid your billing authority

To summarise, these lines on the remittance advice and the invoice you receive are for your accounting records only, and the funds will pass directly from DfE to your billing authority and bypass your bank account.

Schools and academies whose billing authority is continuing with their existing payment process

If your billing authority is not implementing the central NNDR payment process as of 1 April 2025 and, therefore, continuing with their existing payment process, you will need to submit a claim.

Adjustments for previous years

All academies and trusts can use the claim form to adjust previously paid claims for the following financial years:

2024 to 2025
2023 to 2024
2022 to 2023
2021 to 2022
2020 to 2021
2019 to 2020 - to note, this will be the last year that you can claim any adjustments for this financial year

You must submit any claim adjustments by 5pm on Monday 2 February 2026 for payment within the current financial year.

We will consider claims submitted after this date for payment during the following financial year.

Making a valid claim

When making a claim, it is important to note the following eligibility criteria:

we do not provide NNDR funding for periods prior to academy conversion. If your conversion date falls within a financial year, then you will be able to claim from the date of conversion to the end of March of that year and thereafter
unoccupied properties do not qualify for NNDR funding
to receive NNDR relief from DfE, properties must be occupied and used for education, with pupils attending classroom-based learning
NNDR claims should only be submitted for academy buildings
buildings used solely for administrative tasks are not eligible for this funding
office and premises which are rated separately from the main school site are not eligible for NNDR funding
rented facilities are not eligible for NNDR funding
where a billing authority has issued a separate rates bill for the school premises and the maintained nursery premises, we will only fund the school premises element
car parking spaces and premises which are rated separately from the main school site are not eligible for NNDR funding

You can read further information on eligible educational providers in ‘section 5: eligible schools’ of the national non-domestic rates payment process for schools: operational guidance for billing authorities on the central payment process.

Multi-academy trusts can submit claims on behalf of their constituent academies; however, payments will remain at academy level.

We require total bill values with 80% mandatory relief applied when submitting a claim. You should enter the total bill amount for the year you are claiming.

For example, if your bill shows the total charge amount of £2,490.88, then £2,490.88 should be entered into the online NNDR claim form. These instructions are the same for each year.

For academies with multiple bills and buildings, you must combine your bill values and enter these into the form.

To validate your NNDR claim, you may be prompted to upload the supporting bill.

Depending on monthly payment deadlines, we will make one payment within 3 months of receiving a claim. Depending on when you submit your claim during a month, we will aim to pay most claims within 2 months of submission.

When to claim

The final deadline for submitting your claim is 5pm on Monday 2 February 2026.

Claims can be amended up until this deadline. However, it will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline. If you miss this deadline then you will need to wait until the next financial year, noting that there are restrictions on which years you can claim for each year.

Accessing the claim form

Use the NNDR claim form to make a claim.

Before you start

Before you start the claims process, you will need:

to have read this guidance on how to make a claim
a DfE Sign-in account
the authority to submit a claim on behalf of your setting and you understand that, as a recipient of this funding, your setting is responsible for protecting public money

You may also be asked to upload a digital PDF copy of your NNDR bill. The bill should show a deduction of mandatory relief. If your bill does not show a deduction of mandatory relief, then you must obtain a new bill from your billing authority.

We recommend you try your DfE Sign-in credentials as soon as possible to avoid any issues with submitting your form.

Follow steps 1 to 6 below to access your DfE Sign-in account.

Access the NNDR claim form.
When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication.
Choose the organisation for whom you are completing the claim form (this is only required if your account is linked to several organisations).
The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address, and unique reference number (URN) or UK provider reference number (UKPRN) of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into DfE Sign-in.
If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to move to the next page.
If you believe these details are incorrect or you are experiencing issues accessing the form, you can contact us via the Customer Help Portal and we will investigate.

To complete the form, your account must be connected to the organisation you are making a claim for. You will also need to select ‘Add services to my account’ or ‘Request access to a service’ from related links within DfE Sign-in page and request access to ’NNDR services’. Instructions for adding both these additional services to your DfE Sign-in account are explained in the sections below.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account, you will need to create one by following steps 1 to 5 below:

Access DfE Sign-in and select ‘Create a DfE Sign-in account’.
Enter your name and email address (use a valid business email address that contains your name. To note, we are unable to accept generic emails, such as ‘admin’ or ‘info’).
We will send you an email to verify your email address. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.
Create a memorable password that must be at least 14 characters. A good way to create a secure and memorable password is to use 3 random words. You can use numbers, symbols and spaces.
Sign in using your new credentials.

You may have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually a senior person, such as an administrator or a manager.

For security reasons you will need the approval of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form.

To add a new organisation to your DfE Sign-in account, follow steps 1 to 6 below:

Login to your DfE Sign-in account.
Select ‘Organisations’ from the tab at the top of the page.
Select ‘Request access to an organisation’ from the ‘Related actions’ on the righthand side of the page.
Enter the URN or UKPRN of the organisation you wish to add.
Select the organisation from search results.
Enter comments for the approver and select ‘Confirm’.

Your request will be sent to the approver(s) of your organisation.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you will need to log back in to DfE Sign-in and add ‘NNDR service’ to your account, by following the steps as outlined in the following section below.

To add the NNDR service to your account, follow steps 1 to 6 below:

Login to your DfE Sign-in account.
Select ‘Services’ from the tab at the top of the page.
Select ‘Add services to my account’ from the ‘Related actions’ on the righthand side of the page.
Select the organisation.
Select ‘National non-domestic rates (NNDR) claims’ from the list of services.
Select ‘Confirm’.

Once your request to access the NNDR service has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined in sign in to your DfE Sign-in account to complete the claim form.

If you need further assistance

If you need help using the DfE Sign-in service, use our DfE Sign-in help service where you will be able to request further assistance. When raising a support request, select ‘Other’.

If you believe you are eligible to claim but are having problems accessing the form, you can contact us via the Customer Help Portal.

Completing the form

Once you have authenticated through DfE Sign-in and are in the form, you will find a ‘Save and continue’ button on each page which will take you to the next page.

The form will remember information you have saved if you sign out or if you leave it open for an extended period. You can resume your submission when you sign back in.

You will be presented with several pages with a series of questions which will ask you to complete information related to NNDR. All questions are mandatory.

Once you have answered all questions, you will be prompted to complete the required declarations before you can submit your form. After submitting your form, you will be advised of the next steps and will receive an email confirmation.

You can edit and resubmit your form until the submission deadline.

Enquiries

If you have any questions about the NNDR process or how to complete the online form, you can contact us via the Customer Help Portal.

What happens next 

The information you have submitted will be checked and validated.

If there are no issues with your claim, we will process the payment within the expected timescales, and you will receive notifications and payments accordingly.

If we have a query regarding your claim, we will contact you for further information.

Academy national non-domestic rates (NNDR) claims

Applies to England

Introduction

Eligibility to claim

New claims for 2025 to 2026

Schools and academies whose billing authority is implementing the central NNDR payment process

Schools and academies whose billing authority is continuing with their existing payment process

Adjustments for previous years

Making a valid claim

When to claim

Accessing the claim form

Before you start

If you need further assistance

Completing the form

Enquiries

What happens next

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Academy national non-domestic rates (NNDR) claims

Applies to England

Introduction

Eligibility to claim

New claims for 2025 to 2026

Schools and academies whose billing authority is implementing the central NNDR payment process

Schools and academies whose billing authority is continuing with their existing payment process

Adjustments for previous years

Making a valid claim

When to claim

Accessing the claim form

Before you start

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account

Adding NNDR service to your DfE Sign-in account

If you need further assistance

Completing the form

Enquiries

What happens next

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