ALM18100 - Funding: how to access your Apprenticeship Levy funds

How to access your Apprenticeship Levy funds

Levy paying employers with employees located in England, will be able to set up a Apprenticeship Service account from January 2017. The account will contain funds which they can spend on apprenticeship training and assessment costs in England. The money available to spend in their Apprenticeship Service account is determined by the number of their current employees who live in England.

If the employer is levy-paying, with operations based wholly or partly in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, they will need to engage with the relevant funding authorities for funding apprenticeships located there. As apprenticeships are a devolved policy, authorities in each of the UK nations manage their own apprenticeship programmes, including how funding is spent on apprenticeship training.

The amount of funds available to spend in an employer’s Apprenticeship Service account is determined by the value of the Apprenticeship Levy they declare and the number of their current employees who live in England. HMRC will calculate what proportion of each employer’s pay bill is paid to employees living in England for each PAYE scheme. This proportion will be available to view through the Apprenticeship Service from March 2017.

The calculation will be first be run in February 2017 and subsequently run quarterly in July, October, January and April each year.

To calculate how much an employer will have to spend through the English system, HMRC will use data it already holds about the home address of an employer’s employees. Employers should ensure that their employees’ home address data is up to date. Employers can notify us of an employee’s change of address on a real time information Full Payment Submission (FPS Employers will also need to ensure their own address history is up to date).

The Government will apply a 10% top-up to the funds available for spending on apprenticeship training in England. The top-up will be applied monthly at the same time the funds enter the digital account.

If employers experience any issues with accessing money paid through the Apprenticeship Levy, they can contact the national apprenticeship helpdesk via helpdesk@manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk or telephone on 08000 150 600.</p>