Apprenticeship Levy

What is the Apprenticeship Levy?

The Apprenticeship Levy is a levy on larger employers to fund apprenticeships and applies to both public and private sectors. If your business wage bill is over £3 million, your company will pay the Apprenticeship Levy of 0.5% of your annual wage bill. The levy is administered by the Digital Apprenticeship Service, and collected from the PAYE system.

If your business wage bill falls below £3 million then you do not pay the levy. You can benefit from the co-funding scheme and receive 95% government funding to support apprenticeship training. An employer that does not pay the levy will contribute 5% of the programme and assessment costs. Non-levy paying employers need to apply for Reserved Funding to access the co-investment model to benefit from this funding.

Both levy and non-levy paying employers can benefit from additional payments to support their apprentices. Employers can receive an additional payment of £1,000 in respect of apprentices aged 18 on the start date of the programme, or an apprentice aged up to 24 who has previously been in care or has a Local Authority Education, Health and Care Plan.

For further information, please see the Government’s website

In any 12-month period, non-levy paying businesses can apply to reserve funding for up to ten employees. For employers wishing to train more than three employees it may be possible to benefit from levy-transfer funding, which is funding accrued by a larger employer who has not fully utilised their levy. We have an allocation of funding to support non-levy businesses. Contact us for further details.

Lancashire Levy Transfer Network (LLTN)

A consortium of Lancashire organisations, including the University of Central Lancashire, are working together to help local businesses develop their workforce and retain funding within the county as it recovers from the effects of the Covid19 pandemic. The Lancashire Levy Transfer Network (LLTN) was established is an impartial and free service that brings together and supports businesses to give and receive Apprenticeship Levy funds.

The Network will enable businesses to get the support they need to access apprenticeship training for their staff and will simplify the process of matching up businesses for mutual benefit; levy-payers do not lose their underspent funds to a central government pot and instead, the maximum amount of levy investment is retained in the Lancashire region.

For more information on how your business can benefit please visit the Lancashire Levy Transfer Network website.